


Wings of Kalos

by Ghostdragon1660



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, OC death, Pokemon Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 35,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29719821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostdragon1660/pseuds/Ghostdragon1660
Summary: Angel was meant to follow in her mother's footsteps as a Nurse Joy, but fate and the death of a friend led her to the dangerous profession of Pokemon Trainer. Follow Angel as she goes throughout the beautiful region of Kalos on a somewhat classic journey with her Pokemon, with perhaps a few twists along the way. It takes place about 100 years after the anime and the games but has references throughout. Reviews and comments extremely welcome!





	1. Of All the Days...

Chapter 1- Of All the Days...  
=====================================================================  
I stared at the monstrous Elite Pinsir before me and blew my bubblegum pink hair out of my eyes, ‘This will be interesting…’  
The Gym leader across from her was swaying on their platform and slurring their words, “I accept your stupid challenge, Send out all the Pokemon you want, Ruthless will beat em’ all,”  
There was not a single person in the stands on either side of the battlefield, it was nearly the off-season for this Gym and, as a consequence, there were no one to witness this sham of a Gym battle. Nor was there a referee for our match, the bug-type gym of Kalos was one of the few gyms where the leader was trusted to not injure a challenger’s pokemon, its bugs were too weak to do any real damage.  
The Pinsir before me however, was one of Gym Leader Talisin’s real team, one that had beaten the Elite Four, the four most powerful trainers in Kalos besides the Champion. It was massive and plated with thick brown armor, scars running up and down its exoskeleton. If it were any other battle, I would have forfeited right then, but I couldn’t afford to lose, not this time. The game was on.  
I took a deep breath in and out then threw two pokeballs into the air, releasing my Froakie and Goomy onto the battlefield in front of me, “Bit of a change you two, this battle is gonna be a hit and run, don’t, under any circumstance let Pinsir hit you, you’ll be knocked out instantly,”  
My Froakie, Edge, immediately scanned the battlefield, which was in the center of a large greenhouse with many ancient trees and exotic plants to give bug types an advantage. She followed my command and leaped for the relative safety of the trees. My Goomy, Nozomi, quickly glided over to a small pool meant for any water pokemon who came to the gym. He sank to the bottom and stirred up some silt to at least partially hide himself. I smiled, for I had taught both of them well.  
The drunk Gym leader laughed, a deep, throaty chuckle, “Hiding doesn’t matter, Ruthless’ll get them just as easily, Hyper Beam on the trees and pond, fry the little jerks!”  
A powerful beam of light jumped from the Pinsir’s maw and cut through the trees like a knife through butter, but not before the Pinsir shot his trainer an uncertain and almost scared look, it had never seen it’s trainer like this before.  
Edge lept from tree to tree as each fell to the Pinsir’s Hyper Beam, before the Pinsir switched to evaporating the small pond.  
“Nozomi, get out of there!”  
My little Goomy slid out of the pond just before the beam reached its mark. He crawled under one of the small bushes in the undergrowth of the indoor forest.  
“Edge, try to slow Pinsir down with your Frubbles!”  
Gobs of sticky, white foam pelted the Pinsir as it slowly lumbered over to the pond to assess what damage he did. The Frubbles were brushed off as minor annoyances to the pinsir, only barely slowing it down. The Pinsir almost seemed to sigh in relief when it saw that it did not fry my Goomy to a crisp, obviously it's tough appearance hid a soft interior. I giggled at the look on the massive Pinsir’s face, if I didn’t know any better, I would say that the Pinsir didn’t want to battle with his drunk trainer, especially against such small Pokemon.  
“You think this is funny! I’ll show you funny, Ruthless, Mega-Evolve!”  
I twitched as a small gem set directly into the Pinsir’s thick exoskeleton began to pulse with light in time with the stone in the Gym leader’s bracelet. Spiderwebs of colored light spread in midair from Gym leader Talisin and connected to the Pinsir with an audible cracking sound. I had never seen Mega Evolution in person before, but even to my untrained eye there was something... off about his Mega evolution. As topaz wings pierced the Pinsir’s armor, I could feel a change in the air. It was as if the drunken anger currently filling Talisin had passed into the Pinsir. Its newly amber eyes opened, filled with indescribable rage. I reevaluated my life choices right then, the sliver of hope for winning this fight dying with each recalculated variable.  
“Guys?” I called out to my currently hidden friends, as the Pinsir’s new wings buzzed into flight, “New Plan, don’t try to attack it, just run, run now!”  
The Pinsir roared with fury as my two pokemon shot out from their hiding places. A dangerous game of cat and mouse commenced as the Pinsir flew at incredible speeds to chase my Pokemon. If there wasn’t so much cover in the veritable jungle of a battlefield, my pokemon would have surely died many times over. Five harrowing minutes of close calls later, it was obvious that my pokemon’s stamina was wavering. I studied the Pinsir, looking for weakness, injuries or anything that would give me an advantage over the beast and its furious master. My eyes widened with surprise when I noticed that the Pinsir was lagging behind my pokemon, even in their weakened state.  
“Edge, Water Pulse, lt’s weakening!” The Pinsir was gaining on Nozomi, the slower of my two pokemon. A smaller than normal ball of water slammed into the side of the Pinsir, enraging it further, yet giving me two valuable pieces of information. One, my Pokemon were severely exhausted, I would have to forfeit if this went on any longer and two, that small strands of light were beginning to spread from the Pinsir’s stone back to Talisin’s, a sure sign of an impending de-evolution. In all of history, only two pokemon could still stand after de-evolving from Mega-evolution, the mythical sky dragon, Rayquaza and the 13th Champion’s cornerstone Charizard, Ignus. I doubted that even the elite Pinsir before me could match the power of those legendary figures so I took a risk.  
I scanned the battlefield for anything I could use for the half-formed plan in my mind, ‘There, Perfect,’ “Nozomi, Trust me, Stop now, Protect!”  
He paused with a confused look on his face in front of one of the trees that had barely escaped the rage of the Pinsir. A Hyper beam began to form in the Pinsir’s frothing maw, the beam of immense energy charging with sparks of heat and light jumping off of it. I counted one, two, three, four seconds before it released with a blast of sound directly at the tiny slimeball that was my precious Protected Nozomi … and the tree behind him.  
“Nozomi, Get out of the way now!” I screamed, my emotions on full display for the first time in the fight. Edge’s eyes widened as I seemed to have given my Goomy a suicide mission. My Froakie was scrambling to the top of the tree behind Nozomi, right as it began to topple…on top of the Pinsir. She jumped off the tree, but didn’t seem to get enough height, until a second light of evolution enveloped her. In mid air, my little froakie’s legs began to lengthen along with her “cape” of Frubbles.  
“No way…” I stared at the light as it merged into my newly evolved Frogadier, who flew away from the falling tree as if shot from a cannon. She tumbled as she landed, just barely catching herself. She stood to her new height of two feet for a few seconds, before she fell to the ground again, unconscious. I returned her in a flash of red light then turned to the freshly fallen tree as a similar light enveloped the de-evolved Pinsir.  
In a childish manner, Talisin turned his back to me with his hands up, “Ugh, You win okay, I need a drink… Go get the stupid badge”  
He walked off the stage as I cried out, “Nozomi!”  
I returned him, which was a good sign, and looked at his pop-up stats which came from his pokeball after I pressed a hidden button. ‘Nine percent! You took quite the beating…”  
I walked off of my stage and out to the main lobby. Before I could get to it, a small, mousy lady rushed into me, nearly knocking me over.  
“Woah! Are you okay?” I recognized her as the front desk receptionist who greeted me kindly as I walked in and warned me that Talisin was not in the mood to battle. ‘I didn't listen …’  
“Am I okay?! I should be asking you that question!” She backed away from me and looked me over, “Talisin isn’t very merciful when he drinks…”  
“Are you kidding me? He sent out his Pinsir on me,”  
“Not Ruthless…” She seemed to shrink back at the mention of the powerful pokemon, “Ruthless would never hurt those sweet little pokemon you registered, unless…”  
“He certainly lived up to the name once he Mega-evolved him, my pokemon...,”  
“Are they…” The unasked question hung in the air like thick, black smog.  
“No, neither of them died, in fact, I won,”  
She stepped even further back from me and turned her head, “H-how?”  
“I think his drunken anger sorta… passed into Pinsir once he Mega evolved, if it weren’t for that, well…”  
The receptionist stared at me for a second, as if looking me over with new eyes, then she laughed heartily, “Oh, Talisin’s going to feel that once morning comes, Well, you certainly deserve a badge for that battle, Come with me!”  
Her entire nervous demeanor changed as she swerved on her heels and began to walk briskly towards the lobby. I followed her into the spacious room and waited as she rummaged in her desk, bringing out a small brass beetle and a green disk.  
“Trainer I.D.?” She asked and I brought out my sleek Pokedex for her to scan the badge in. Physical badges often got lost in times past, so Gyms had a policy to scan a badge into a trainers I.D, in this case my Pokedex, before they left the Gym. After she placed the back of the badge on the surface of the phone-sized device, she flipped the brass badge into my hand like a coin, “Congratulations, here is the Bug Badge!”  
“What’s this?” I pointed to the green T.M. in her other hand.  
“This here is the T.M. Infestation, It’s quite useful for catching Pokemon, keeps ‘em from escaping,” She handed me the fragile disk, then waved me away “I believe that cute Goomy is able to learn it, now go, go, the Pokecenter is waiting,”  
“Thank you,” I placed the badge into a small case and the T.M. into a special pocket in my backpack, which I had left on a waiting bench in the lobby, then I left the building and went into the bustling square of Santalune city. Dodging a few Gogoat taxis, I made my way across the busy square to the Pokecenter. Before I went in, I made sure to put my hood up. The pokecenter was not busy, most regular trainers were long gone by now. It was rare that anyone waited until two weeks before the deadline, after all. The deadline is a time limit of 6 months from April 1st that trainers have to finish the first Gym and become a real trainer in the League. That way, people won’t get the benefits of being a battling trainer such as free room and board at Pokecenters, without the League getting their tax money’s worth.  
Trying to make the interaction as short as possible, I quickly detached my two pokeballs from my belt and handed them to the Nurse Joy at the front desk.  
“Here’s my Pokemon, they...they’re pretty beat up, my Froakie evolved near the end, she might need extra care,”  
The nurse squinted at me, trying to make out my face as she took my pokeballs, “Hm... okay, I’ll be sure to take a look,”  
She turned away and gave the Pokeballs to a waiting Wigglytuff, who ran to the back of the foyer and into a door marked “Employees Only”, before following it.  
I walked over to a small group of couches in the large main room of the Pokecenter and collapsed onto one of them, my head in my hands.  
‘That-That battle,’ I thought as the wave of emotions from the Gym battle crashed over me, held in since the moment I won the battle, “I can’t believe I won,”  
I had trained with my pokemon for nearly six months for this, I waited for the day no one would be expecting me, and of course the day I chose the Gym leader was drunk. Just my luck I suppose. My pokemon were exhausted and badly hurt from the strenuous battle, but at least we won...at least we won.  
Stewing in my thoughts, I waited for my pokemon on that couch. An hour passed, then another, until the Nurse Joy came out of the door and over to me.  
“Here is your Frogadier, but your Goomy is going to need at least the night, may I ask what happened?”  
“He was drunk, guess what happened,” I lifted my tired eyes to hers, not in the mood for chatter, “Now can I have my room key or not?”  
A silent “Oh” formed on the kind Nurse’s face as she saw mine. Without comment, she went back over to her desk and grabbed something small from underneath it. She came back over and gave me both the key and the shrunken Net Ball that held my Edge. I stood up on wobbly legs and walked ungracefully through the center to the hallway that led to the rooms for visiting trainers. I looked at the key and stumbled into room 114, then I released Edge.  
She appeared in a crouching position on my bed, as if about to ambush prey, “Edge, It’s me, the battle’s over, you...you evolved,”  
I could look her over in full now that the danger had passed. Her skin was now a dark, cobalt blue on her back and a lighter sky blue on the bottom. Two small horn-like structures were now atop her head, right behind her eyes and her Frubbles now looked like a scarf instead of a cape. What I noticed most however, was the brand new, powerful muscles now on her legs and arms, I would need to focus on strength and speed training with her from now on.  
I hugged her, “Congratulations,”  
She seemed surprised at my sudden show of affection, but then leaned into the hug. Suddenly, she pulled away and looked me in the eyes, as if asking me a question.  
“Nozomi’s gonna be fine,he was pretty beat up though,”  
Relief filled her eyes as she relaxed into a more comfortable sitting position to begin looking over her new body.  
I looked over the small Pokecenter room. It was simply decorated, with a bed and a nightstand for me and an aquarium, dog bed, and perch for any of my pokemon.  
It was around 7 o’clock at night now, and I had a little time to spend before I needed to go to bed.  
“Edge, you up for a little victory dinner, I think we deserve a little real food other than protein bars,”  
She nodded vigorously, before looking slightly guilty at her enthusiasm.  
“Don’t worry Edge, Nozomi can have plenty of victory food at breakfast,”  
Edge made to jump for my shoulder, but stopped herself just in time, she wasn’t a little Froakie anymore.  
“Come on,” I shrugged my backpack off onto my bed and began to walk out the door, “You need to stretch out those new legs,”  
Using my bed as a springboard, Edge leaped and flipped in the air before landing next to me with the utmost grace. “Showoff…”  
We walked down to the Pokecenter’s cafeteria, where another Wigglytuff was serving a group of rambunctious Pokemon Rangers.  
“...like you could beat my Salamence, your Absol is weaker than my great grandmother, and she’s dead!” One of the male Rangers said, a scar near his mouth working as he spoke.  
“Is that a challenge?” said a lady ranger with spiky, platinum blond hair, “‘Cause I doubt your ickle Ronnie could even touch my Uriel.”  
I quietly received my food with Edge and continued to watch the exchange.  
“So what if it is? I bet you won’t take it, After all, nothing could touch your precious Uriel,” The male Ranger walked up to the lady and stood in front of her, nearly a head taller than the girl Ranger.  
“Hah, Challenge accepted, you and me outside right now” She stood on the tip of her toes to meet the scarred Ranger in the eye.  
“Guys, Guys, you need a judge if you are really going to duke it out outside, I volunteer myself,” The third Ranger spoke, pushing his black hair out of his gray eyes. I was surprised at his voice, it was as if he had appeared out of thin air between the two other Rangers!  
“Heck no,” The girl ranger looked at the new ranger, not surprised in the least at his sudden arrival“You’ll vouch for Corporal Jack’s Ronnikins every time, we need an impartial judge, Shiro,”  
“Ugh! How many times do I have to tell you, her name is Rhonda! But Zoe’s right, Shiro,” The scarred man looked around the cafeteria for a moment before spotting Edge and I, “Hey you, yeah, the girl with the Frogadier, think you could referee for our little spat?”  
I realized that he was indicating me and I stood up, “Uh, Sure,”  
Edge and I followed the trio to the back of the Pokecenter, where two doors led to a massive battlefield and general training area. Since it was close to the off-season for this Pokecenter, there was no one out there except us.  
As Zoe and Lieutenant Jack took to the two ends of the main battlefield, I walked to the middle on one side with Shiro and Edge.  
As Zoe and Jack prepared themselves, Shiro turned to me, “That’s a strong looking Frogadier, is she newly evolved?”  
“You have a good eye,” Frogadier have no visible ways of telling gender, it took an expert eye to spot the differences, “And yes, she’s recently evolved, just a few hours ago actually,”  
“Wow, you’ll have to tell us the story after this,” Shiro took out a pokeball and threw it into the air, releasing a large Greninja, “Daisuke, do you want to teach this little one a few tricks? Zoe and Jack are at it again,”  
“T-Thank you,” I was flattered, Rangers and their pokemon need at least 6 badges to enter boot camp. I would gladly allow Edge to train with a far more experienced pokemon any day, especially one of her own species.  
The two frog-like Pokemon left for one of the other training areas. Shiro took out another pokeball from a pocket on his tactical vest. He released a Gardevoir and asked it: “Alura, Can you put up some barriers, I don’t think they’re going to hold back,”  
The beautiful girl-like pokemon opened its arms and sent out a wave of light which formed itself into shimmering barriers on every side of the battlefield as Zoe and Jack sent out their Pokemon.  
Corporal Jack sent out a monstrous Salamence, at least ten feet tall at the shoulder.  
“Is his Salamence female?” I asked Shiro, who nodded. Female dragon types are often larger than their male counterparts, so it made sense that his Rhonda was no different.  
Zoe released her Pokeball from her hand, sending out a flash of white that transformed into a lithe and feminine looking Absol. The curve of white hair atop its head was spiked like Zoe’s and seemed to sparkle in the waning light. It snarled at the Salamence, who roared back, apparently the two pokemon had the same rivalry as their trainers.  
I called out to the battlefield, “I’m assuming you two are ready?”  
“Yeah, ready to kick Zoe’s puny Absol into the next town!” Jack seemed to send some kind of silent signal to his Salamence, who immediately flew into the air.  
“You might have won last time Jack, but Uriel and I have a few new tricks up our sleeve, we’re ready as well,” Zoe shot back, “Uriel, prepare aerial countermeasures!”  
“Begin!” I cried out before sitting back on the bleachers to watch the match,my job as referee was to watch for any truly foul play, so I needed to have a keen eye on the battle.  
Uriel shot out a multitude of shadow balls that seemed to attach themselves to a swift move, which never misses. The Shadow-Swifts seemed to aim themselves to the wings of Jack’s Salamence, before impacting many key points along them to bring the dragon to the ground. ‘Hm, impressive combo, but Jack doesn't seem to be bothered by it, he must have seen it all before.’  
He yelled to his Pokemon, “Brick break, then back to the air,”  
Rhonda tried to slam her tail into the Absol, but he dodged the super-effective move and retaliated with a shadowy claw. Rhonda roared in pain, then flapped her wings to take off.  
“Uriel, jump on Rhonda’s back, Slash and Claw!”  
The absol leaped onto Rhonda’s broad back as she flew higher into the air, then began to use Night Slash and Shadow Claw liberally on her back scales.  
“Rhonda, fight the pain and fly as high as you can!”  
I could see the cogs working in Zoe’s mind as her Absol was flown straight upward, forty, fifty, then sixty feet before she commanded Uriel, “Jump off!”  
Uriel obeyed his trainer, but just as he began to fall, the Salamence caught him with her claws, “Uh oh, this is going to be a shorter match than I thought’  
“Yes! Use Giga impact!” Jack smiled as Rhonda’s entire body began to glow with a Normal-type aura as she dove straight to the ground. She slammed Uriel into the ground, dealing a massive amount of damage and began to use Brick Break over and over again on Uriel’s stunned body. When she finally backed away from Uriel, I thought that he must be unconscious, nothing could survive such a brutal series of attacks, especially from a dragon, the most powerful and rare of types.  
I was about to call the match, but Zoe held up a hand to stop me. Uriel was getting up! He stood on shaking legs then looked back to his trainer. A silent interaction passed between them, a decision was reached and Uriel turned to the Salamence, still shaking but holding firm.  
“You forced my hand, Jack,” Zoe said almost sadly, “I wanted to show you this later in the battle, but I guess you can’t wait can you, Uriel, Mega-Evolve!”  
Jack and I did a double take as both Uriel and Zoe were surrounded by beads of both shimmering light and abyssal darkness. A somewhat familiar gem showed itself set into a hidden headband on Zoe’s head and began to shine in tune with the larger gem previously covered by Uriel’s hair. Their mega evolution was completely different from the Pinsir, this was much more stable and seemed to come from the dark aura of Absol rather than the bug-type aura of Pinsir. Uriel began to evolve, long lengths of fur growing rapidly from his white coat as a secondary horn peeked out of his cowlick. The light began to condense on the Absol’s back as Jack regained his senses,  
“Rhonda, focus and use Outrage!”  
Zoe’s eyes shifted to Jack, surprised at the notorious dragon-type move. Apparently, Jack had a few aces he was hiding from Zoe as well. As pure rage began to burn in the terrifying dragoness’ eyes, Uriel finished his Mega evolution with a flourish of two brand-new brilliantly white wings that seemed to grow from his lengthened mane. Uriel shot into the air just as a stream of pure blue dragon fire blew past him.  
Outrage was a move famous for its destructive power, and Rhonda’s was no exception. Fire spewed from her mouth without care to where it hit, draconic energy seemed to envelop her entire titanic body, and her every step shook the ground. It was a fearsome sight and one that could have leveled entire cities long ago, yet Zoe’s Absol showed nothing but nerve in the face of this ferocious display. Uriel seemed to move with the shadows and struck with precision at the dragon. Shadow claw after shadow claw was poured into the enraged Rhonda. The pain only seemed to fuel the dragon-type’s anger, she roared with frustration at the sneaky Absol, erupting with even more draconic flame.  
A minute went by, I was impressed with the Salamence’s power, the dragons I had seen in gym matches never lasted this long before the effects of Outrage faded and confusion set in. Both Rhonda and Uriel were looking haggard, for Uriel, it looked like the very act of entering the dragon’s aura was dealing massive amounts of damage, while Rhonda seemed to be spending the last of her energy reserves to keep the Outrage running. ‘This battle’s going to end soon, one way or another,’  
Zoe yelled out to Uriel just as light motes began to release from their stones, “Finish this!”  
For the first time since it had mega-evolved, the Absol flew out of the shadows and directly in front of Rhonda’s maw right after she had let loose a jet of flame, a familiar light forming from his own mouth. Like an angel of death, Uriel spread his wings to their fullest extent and unleashed Hyper Beam at point blank range, screamed commands from Jack falling on deaf ears. It created a smoking crater in between the dragon’s eyes, not deep enough to kill her, but a grievous injury.  
Seconds passed as Rhonda stood frozen in place, until finally, she fell over, unconscious and bleeding from her head wound. Jack returned her and began to walk forward stiffly, stunned. Zoe returned Uriel just as he was about to de-evolve, spent as well. They met in the center of the field and seemed to exchange a few words that neither me nor Shiro could hear from this distance. Jack seemed to end the conversation with a sad nod and Zoe walked back to us, a smile on her face with a now depressed Jack a few paces behind her.  
“Guess my Uriel’s a bit faster than your dead grandma,” Zoe proclaimed as she came within earshot, Jack came up behind her, head held low.  
“Where in the world did you get an Absolite? I...I could have never expected that,”  
Zoe ruffled the hair of the Corporal, “I’m not telling, Like I would give you that advantage…”  
Jack seemed to regain a little of the fire he lost in the battle, “So that’s why you were gone for three months, I knew it wasn’t “‘a sabbatical’”  
“Yup, me and Uriel were getting beefed up for our next match, couldn’t let that Outrage pound us like that again,”  
The duo seemed to be engrossed in their banter and ignored Shiro and I until Shiro fake-coughed into his shoulder, “That was an incredible match from both of you yet again, Congratulations Zoe,”  
“Ha, Thanks Shiro, that’s great praise coming from you” As Zoe spoke, Shiro’s Gardevoir floated over to our group and looked towards Shiro.  
“That Outrage almost destroyed your barriers,” I walked up to the Gardevoir and looked at her, she was obviously tired yet Shiro did not return her. ‘Perhaps this is good strength training for a psychic,’ The Gardevoir cocked its head at me and her eyes began to glow, Shiro nodded at some telepathic exchange, then he turned to me.  
“Yes, Alura did not anticipate how long Rhonda was going to Outrage,” Shiro spoke, “That was impressive stamina, Jack, nearly thirty seconds longer than last time,”  
“So analytic Shiro, I just thought it was awesome,” Jack replied, the adrenaline from the intense battle began to wear off, “ Now let’s go get something to drink shall we?”  
“Um, Can I come? I mean I don’t want to intrude but I could definitely use some company right about now,” I asked awkwardly as the trio began to walk away and into the Pokecenter.  
“Of course! you were the one crazy enough to be our referee,” Zoe roped me into the group and put her arm over my shoulder, “You look like you could use some early Ranger initiation,”  
“Zoe, she’s like 14, come on,” Jack childed.  
“Well, I don’t drink,” I spoke up as we walked out of the Pokecenter and towards the nearest bar in Santalune.  
“So you’re like Shiro then?” Zoe shoved her shoulder into Shiro’s as she teased, “Guess that means that Jack’ll be buying more drinks for me,”  
“Ugh, at least I’ll be drinking enough to forget this mess, Zoe... winning…Ugh,” Jack settled into a sullen brooding as we entered the bar, a relatively clean, but old pub full of rowdy night patrons.  
“Oh that's not all,” Zoe had an evil smile on her face as we sat at the bar and she called the bartender over, “Everyone, round of drinks on this man right here! He just lost a bet!”  
A cheer filled the bar as Jack grunted, “Oh you are evil…”  
He coughed up the necessary money as beers were passed out to nearly every person in the bar.  
The rangers drank and began to tell me stories of their journeys.  
“I just got this Inkay from a mission at Grace Tower,” Zoe showed me a pokeball that looked normal but had a small, rectangular indent above the release button, “See that mark? That means that I can keep rehabbing Pinky without her counting against my team number…”  
Even Jack got in on the revelry once he had a drink or two,“You think Rhonda’s big? Well you should see my Gunther, he’s a Garchomp, his father was a King, 15 feet tall and counting…”  
“Hey, why were you in the Pokecenter? No one comes so close to the deadline,” Shiro looked me in the eye once Zoe and Jack had another drink and a few hours had gone by.  
I told him about my Gym battle, about the Elite Pinsir, the drunk Gym leader, everything. He listened attentively, with Zoe and Jack joining in after having their drink. As I got to the part about the Mega evolved Pinsir, Zoe gasped,  
“That's not good at all, Mega evolution… you and your Pokemon’s emotions have to be in sync or else… it's very dangerous”  
“Well, if it wasn’t for that quirk, I would never have won…”  
I continued my story, telling them about my Froakie’s evolution and how close my Goomy was to death.  
“Goomy? How did you find a dragon here?” Jack leaned towards me with a spark in his eyes, “ I have an open spot…”  
“Well, If you want a pretty powerful one, I heard that there’s Dragalge and Skrelp off the coast of Route 8, they have acid that can melt steel…”  
He took out a small notepad and wrote down what I said, then motioned for me to continue. I ended with me getting my badge and the T.M, before rushing to the Pokecenter.  
“Well, after that, I waited for Edge and went to get some food, which is when I saw you guys,”  
“That’s some story, usually the bug gym is a pushover,” Zoe patted me on the shoulder, “I hope your Goomy’s going to be okay,”  
“Talisin must have had one of his pokemon die recently, it's the risk you take when you specialize in bug types…” Jack sobered for a second.  
“Oh,” I looked to the side, pausing guiltily at this realization “...Still, it doesn’t excuse what he did, both of my pokemon could have died as well,he’s still a Gym Leader”  
Jack turned back to Zoe and began to drink yet again with renewed vigor, he was going to have a killer hangover in the morning.  
“I think it's time we return to the Pokecenter, let's leave these two to their drinks shall we?” Shiro held out his arm for me to take before opening his other hand for his Gardevoir, who had been meditating in the back of the bar with another trainer’s Kadabra.  
We teleported instantaneously to the back of the Pokecenter, where Edge and Shiro’s Greninja were still training hard.  
I looked at my Pokedex and noted that it was 11 at night, they had been training for three hours!  
“Daisuke! That’s enough,” Shiro called to his Greninja, who seemed to appear in an instant out of the shadows behind us, with Edge leaping towards us seconds later.  
I looked over my Frogadier, still so newly evolved. She seemed exhausted, but happy.  
Meanwhile, Shiro was talking to his Greninja, with Alura’s eyes glowing at intermittent times to translate. A few minutes went by before he nodded to end the conversation and turned to me.  
Shiro got serious, “My Greninja has discovered something about your Frogadier,”  
“What do you mean?” I focused my gaze on him, curious.  
“It seems she has a special ability that only a select few of the Froakie line manifest per every generation, Daisuke saw that your Frogadier had the signs for it and he trained her in the basics,”  
“What? What is it?” I walked over and looked at Daisuke, Shiro’s Greninja; it was barely breaking a sweat after three hours of hard training!  
“It’s known as the hidden ability Protean, It essentially changes Frogadier’s type to align with the move she uses. As long as she collects the aura needed for the move, she is, for all intents and purposes the same type as the move,”  
“That’s...That’s incredible…” I was stunned, the ability could have so many strategic uses, “Why haven’t I noticed it before? Edge has moves that are different than her own type, like Lick and Pound,”  
“Well, she will not really be able to utilize her ability until she gets more experienced in this form and gets a bit more in tune with aura, I recommend getting the T.M. Hidden Power for her, it is quite the useful move for a Pokemon with her abilities,”  
I called Edge to my side, “Does Daisuke have it?”  
Shiro laughed, “No, We know a guy who does, Daisuke’s ability is a bit of a mystery, Wait, that reminds me, make sure to call me when she evolves, pokemon with her ability can be, temperamental, at evolution,”  
“I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that for a while,” I rubbed the top of Edge’s head, then returned her, “Edge needs to do a bit more growing before then, maybe a few more months,”  
“May I ask how you got her? It's rare to find a trainer with one of the famous Kalos starter Pokemon, let alone one with her ability,”  
“Edge came from… a friend,” Shiro cocked his head slightly at the look on my face, then continued.  
“You know, You’re more intelligent than you let on,” He stared at me with those gray eyes, “ I was watching you during Zoe and Jack’s battle, you were analyzing it the whole time, I could tell,”  
I stared back at him, my bright green eyes meeting his piercing silver, “A battle like theirs is a great chance for me to learn from experienced trainers, I’m not going to pass that up,”  
“Hm,” He returned both of his pokemon, then came over and gave me his number, “Someone like you would do great in A.C.E., they need people as clever as you.”  
I said nothing as Shiro walked into the Pokecenter ahead of me, then I followed him, only to see that he had disappeared! I looked from side to side, finding no trace of where he went. “Where..?”  
A whisper of wind is all that answered my call. A Wigglytuff passing by looked at me strangely as I began to shuffle back to my room, waves of fatigue from the busy day overtaking me. I got to my room and fell into my nighttime routine, then I collapsed on my bed to sleep.  
I woke to the shrieking of my alarm in a daze. Without even realizing it, I got myself dressed, packed my backpack for travel, and walked to the Pokecenter’s Cafeteria before I fully woke up.  
Like I was slapped, a thought suddenly entered my mind, ‘Nozomi!’  
I made my way to the front desk, where the Nurse Joy from before was waiting with bags under her eyes and a shrunken Pokeball in a plastic tray in front of her.  
“Nozomi!” I traded the Pokeball for my room key and released my Goomy onto the counter to look him over.  
He burbled happily once the red light of de-digitalization cleared from his eyes and he saw me. He seemed physically fine, except for a burned off antenna, which would grow back quickly. I picked him up and placed him on my shoulder, ignoring the deluge of slime that began to crawl down my shoulder.  
“I’m so glad you’re okay buddy,” The slimy dragon-type licked me in appreciation, then situated himself on my shoulder. I looked back at Nurse Joy, noticing her exhausted look, “Did he give you any trouble?”  
“Oh, No,of course not,” The Nurse Joy smiled at the thought of my Goomy, then frowned, “He did great, I was glad to work with a tiny dragon-type for once, That Salamence however…”  
“Thank you,” I said sincerely, feeling her pain, “Do you know any place for buying survival supplies? I’m going to train in Santalune Forest for a bit,”  
“Oh, of course! We sell basic potions and the like right here, but I would go straight for the shopping district if you are looking for anything extra,” She looked at me closer, trying to place my face, “I’m sorry, have we met before?”  
“No, No, I ,uh, just have one of those faces,” I replied, before swiveling on my foot and strolling out the door of the Pokecenter, “Thanks for the info, Bye!”  
I took out my Pokedex and searched for a city map of Santalune. I followed it to the bustling shopping district of Santalune, then looked for a bench to sit down on. I sat, and took Nozomi off of my shoulder and put him into my lap.  
“Nozomi, I have something to tell you,” He chirped in reply, “You didn’t see this but during the battle, something happened to Edge,”  
His little eyes widened in fear, I took out Edge’s Net Ball and released her, “She evolved!”  
If a Goomy could gasp in surprise, Nozomi would have blown us all away at the sight of Edge’s new body. Edge took in his admiration with grace and seemed to preen under his surprised and happy look. I let them talk with each other in the way that only Pokemon can for a while, before putting Nozomi back on my shoulder and standing up.  
“Guys, now that we won our first Gym battle, things are only going to get harder from now on,” I began to walk towards the nearest trainer gear store with Edge by my side, “ We are going to be training in the Santalune forest for a few days before moving on, and I was hoping to get a new team member, but that is for us to worry about later, for now let’s relax,”  
I entered the store and looked around. There were Pokeballs, potions, berries and other Pokegear covering one wall, while the other was devoted to camping gear such as tents and premade meals. I restocked on potions and premade meals then went over to the Pokeball section to grab a few run of the mill regular Pokeballs and a single great ball. I checked over my items, then brought them over to the cashier to ring up.  
“Where are you planning to go?” The young cashier looked up mid-scan, “I’m assuming you just beat Talisin,”  
“How could you tell?”  
“No one ever comes here before they challenge him, and afterwards they either have to train harder to beat him or are leaving for Lumiose,”  
“You’re correct, I just beat him, I’m planning to train in the Forest, got any advice?”  
“Bug-types are stronger than they look,” The cashier finished ringing up my items then lifted his sleeve to show a massive, knotted scar up his arm, “ Don’t be stupid, the Rangers are there for a reason,”  
I looked at him closer, his eyes boring into mine as I did so, “I’ll be sure to keep my Pokedex close,”  
“That thing is what saved my life back then,” The cashier pointed at the small button on the side of my pokedex, it was a panic button that called the nearest Ranger station when one was in danger, “Don’t be afraid to push it,”  
Nozomi burbled sadly, realizing what he meant.  
“That will be 6000,”  
I forked over the money, hard won from both the gym and the many battles I had before. My pokemon and I took one last silent look at the man, who waved, then left the Pokemart.  
“Well, that was...interesting,” I sighed at the heavy facts that the cashier had imparted upon us, then remembered something that made me smile, “I almost forgot, Nozomi, I still have some money left, let’s get victory breakfast!”  
Nozomi chirped and began to literally shake with excitement at the prospect of getting actual food. I walked over to a small cafe and ordered a pastry and water for myself and some Poffins for my Pokemon. I sat down on a stool near the front of the cafe to watch people and pokemon go by as we ate.  
The warm pastries came to us on a small tray, I thanked the barista as my little Goomy devoured Poffin after Poffin, with Edge taking a more civilized approach to nibbling on the pastries.  
I began to eat my own breakfast, when the sound of the small bell at the door rang in my ears. A familiar man in his thirties walked in, his short-cut blond hair skimming the top of the cafe’s door. It was Talisin, the Santalune gym leader, currently holding his head in what had to be a painful hangover.  
I tried to avoid his notice by turning to leave, but he spotted me with ease. He loped over to my table and I realized for the first time just how imposing he was, at over six feet. ‘Strange for a man who deals with tiny bug-types…’  
“You, hey you,” He sat rather uncomfortably on the seat next to me, Nozomi looked up from his feast and began to growl as menacing as he could, while Edge got into a battling position, “You’re the one who challanged me yesterday right?”  
“Yes,”  
He sighed and seemed to deflate, “I came to apologize, I did not act at all like a gym leader yesterday…I’m sorry,”  
I stared at him, “Go on,”  
“Uh,” The Gym Leader looked at me sheepishly, then took a deep breath in, before speaking as quickly as he could “I was drunk and angry and I didn’t expect a challenger so close to the deadline, I took out my grief for my Stinger on you and your Pokemon and for that I am truly sorry,”  
‘Jack was right…’ I sighed and waved off my pokemon, Nozomi simply continued to eat, while Edge kept a wary eye on Talisin, “I understand, and your Pokemon was...a challenge to overcome, but I defeated you in a Gym match and that was what I really came here for,”  
Talisin studied me for a second, an indecipherable look on his face, then he laughed heartily, “Now that’s the kind of trainer I like! Ruthless, a simple challenge.... Oh I haven’t laughed like that in ages…”  
He wiped tears of joy from his eyes, then got serious “ Listen, it takes guts to take on any Elite-level Pokemon, let alone one that can Mega Evolve, I respect that. I don’t remember much of it, but it was certainly a worthy battle,”  
“A bit more worthy than what I was bargaining for however,” I shot back.  
“I wasn’t finished,” His blue eyes hardened, “You see, each Gym is supposed to help trainers by teaching them a lesson about your journey, I was too… indisposed… to tell you it yesterday, but the Bug-type Gym’s lesson is that every Pokemon is dangerous no matter their type. Ruthless would have killed both of your Pokemon if I wasn’t drunk,”  
“I guess that just means that I learned a bit more of a lesson from your Gym than most people,”  
He stood up and gave me a small slip of paper, “Well, since you survived it, that battle’s worth a favor from me, call me when you think of it,”  
He left me in the cafe with my thoughts swirling around what this favor could mean. I typed his number into my Pokedex contacts as Nozomi finished his pile of pastries. I held out my bare arm for him to climb to my shoulder, then walked out after Talisin with Edge on my heels. I watched him walk towards the Gym and disappear around a corner, then turned to Edge.  
“Well, that was... interesting,” I started towards the outskirts of Santalune City, passing through the rest of the shopping district and two neighborhoods before I got to my destination at the edge of the city boundaries. The beginnings of Route Three didn’t look like much, just a simple dirt road, with a spattering of trees on either side, but I knew that looks could be deceiving. This was the start of my true journey, not the 5 month limbo that was before my first gym. With the Bug Badge now registered, I was now an official battling trainer in the eyes of the League. ‘Leo would be so proud…”  
I strolled down the path, keeping my eyes sharp for any trainers on the road ahead. Though most battling trainers had moved on to Cyllage and Shalour City, Route Three was often home to kids from the Pokemon Academy in Santalune. My search was rewarded with the sight of a small group of three kids in Academy uniforms making a beeline towards me.  
“Wait up!” The leader of the trio squeaked, “Are you a trainer?”  
I sighed, these kids weren’t likely to be a challenge, seeing as they would probably have only one Pokemon each. Domestic trainer licenses were available to kids as young as six, as long as they caught a single low-level Pokemon, of which Santalune forest had plenty. The trio in front of me couldn’t be older than eight.  
“We challenge you to a Pokemon Battle against all three of us!” All three of the children released their Pokemon, a Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour.  
‘Hm, those Pokemon are usually found in Santalune forest, these kids might be useful…’ I waved Edge forward, “Okay, I accept on one condition, instead of money, if I win show me to where you found your Pokemon,”  
The three kids looked at me strangely, but then shrugged in unison, the leader stepped up, “That’s fine, You’re not going to win though…”  
Edge jumped out from behind me and in front of the three elemental monkeys. The three kids gasped at the sight of the rare Kalos starter, but only seemed to be more determined to win. I bent down to Edge to whisper, “Edge, I’m not going to give you any orders this match, only to play on the monkey’s weaknesses, get them to attack each other, I leave the rest up to you,”  
She nodded and I spoke up for the students’ benefit, “3 on 1, Begin!”  
The leader ordered her Pansage first, “Vine Whip!”  
Edge dodged the vine easily, just as the second student commanded his Pansear, “Use Incinerate!”  
The red-tufted monkey blew flame toward Edge, who jumped straight into the air to avoid it. As she came down to earth, Edge suddenly blurred in a move I recognized as Quick Attack.  
I was impressed, as a Froakie, Edge wasn’t nearly as fast as she was now. Now, she could move behind and attack all three monkeys before they could react. Suddenly, Edge seemed to stop in front of the Pansear, prompting the third kid to yell to his Panpour, “Water Gun, Quickly!”  
The blast of water shot out of the blue monkey’s mouth. Just as the pressurized water was about to hit, Edge shifted out of the way, letting the water slam into the fire-type behind her. The pansear was flung into one of the trees on the side of the route, knocked out by both the super effective move and the impact into the tree. It’s trainer ran over to it as the two remaining looked at me incredulously, before continuing the match.  
“Scratch the Frogadier, Leaf!” The Pansage’s gleaming claws slashed the image of my Frogadier, only to hit air.  
“Water gun again!” Edge was stopped in front of the Pansage, who had only a second to look surprised before a full powered water gun slammed into its face. The Panpour looked terrified at its actions, which quickly changed to anger when the incited Pansage Tackled it to the ground and began to hit it over and over again with its vines. The Panpour shot a Water Gun at point blank range in retaliation, to the horror of the two remaining trainers.  
The two kids shouted commands to their monkeys to no avail as Edge stood over the two tusseling elemental monkeys with what amounted to a proud smile on her face. The two kids, knowing they were defeated, returned their Pokemon as their third companion came back to their group, a filled Pokeball in his hand.  
The leader came up to me, “That was so cool! We can show you to where we caught our Pokemon, it's a bit far from here though,”  
The three students didn’t seem mad at all at the easy defeat of their pokemon, apparently they only wanted to battle for the fun of it, not caring if they win or lose. I respected that, it wasn’t long ago that I was just like them.  
The three kids led me down route three for a few minutes before going off the designated road and into the underbrush. A small, worn path began about ten minutes in, the dirt covered in overgrown roots and Pokemon tracks.The trees were much thicker here and I could hear the tell-tale buzzing and chirping of bug-type pokemon close by.  
The three kids turned to me, and the leader stepped up, “Just follow this path for a while, it’s a shortcut straight to the place we found our monkeys,”  
“We gotta get home for lunch, but maybe we’ll see you there later,” The Panpour’s trainer turned away and rushed back the way they came, quickly followed by the other two students, “Bye!”  
“Bye!” I smiled, always glad to battle such good sports, “Thanks for the help!”  
Nozomi burbled happily towards them from my shoulder, he enjoyed the battle as well. Edge leaped down from trees nearby, she had been following my path the entire time.  
“Okay, Edge, try to scout ahead as fast as you can, we still haven’t tested your limits since you evolved,” She immediately shot into the trees and was gone, “Nozomi, do you want to stay out, or do you want to nap in your Pokeball,”  
Nozomi whined, a small sound more appropriate for a baby Growlithe than a dragon type, “Outside of the ball it is, but you are not going to battle, you still need to heal up from the gym mister,”  
We continued on the path for three more hours until we reached a large clearing with a grove of Pecha berry trees, presumably imported from Hoen a long while ago. I checked the grove for signs of Pokemon and found marks from an elemental monkey troop, but not recent ones. I called for Edge to come back with a sharp whistle, and she appeared within seconds.  
“Edge, the rest of the day is yours to test your limits, I trust you to realize what those are, come back to me when you’re exhausted. I’m going to set up camp here while you are gone so this is the place you should remember,” Edge nodded before rushing off, excitement in her eyes. “Knowing Edge, there’s going to be quite a few bug pokemon sore by tomorrow,”  
I fully entered the grove of trees, discovering a small pond in the center with a clear area on the other side. There were a couple of small pokemon inside, like Pidgey and pond variety Goldeen, they wouldn’t bother us. I picked Nozomi off of my shoulder and placed him in the small pond, then wiped off the copious amount of slime he left behind.  
“Nozomi, your job for the rest of the day…” My little Goomy burbled with anticipation, “...is to relax and heal up in this pond, I need you to be fully healed by tomorrow,”  
Nozomi seemed to deflate into the pond, saddened. He began to glow with energy as he used Absorb and the water around him to heal himself and regenerate the water he lost from being nearly fried by the Hyper Beam.  
“Don’t be so sad, I need you to be healed so I can teach you a new move,” I dug through my backpack and showed Nozomi the shiny green T.M. His antenna perked up at the mention of a new move, but he was now fully concentrating on healing himself.  
I began the tedious work of setting up the campsite where I would be training, and finished within an hour. I checked the time on my Pokedex, it was about three o’clock, ‘Perfect timing,’  
As a finishing touch to my campsite, I laid out a small mat, sat upon it, closed my eyes, and began to meditate. I breathed in and out, in and out until I was in tune with the forest around me. I could feel the cycle the forest goes through from Scatterbug, to Spewpa, to Vivillon, from fall to winter to spring to summer. It reminded me of the marshes near my home of Anistar City, except with an overwhelming bug-type energy instead of a water-type aura. I opened my eyes and noticed a tiny, white flower on the edge of my mat. I was that delicate flower, I still bloomed even in the late season. Even though the odds were stacked against me, I passed the trial of the first gym and was now preparing for the next seven. I was a trainer in the eyes of the League.  
I meditated for an hour, then got up and began to run through my patterns for self defense training until the sun reached the horizon. The forms were so familiar to me that I could let my mind float away as my body performed the long series of kicks, punches and stances. I switched easily from Taekwondo to Kantonese Jiu Jitsu to Kung fu without conscious thought until my muscles were as numb as my mind. In a foggy daze, I made a fire and cooked a dinner for myself and Nozomi, leaving Edge’s food to the side and went to bed.  
In the middle of the night, I was awoken by Edge’s weak shaking. She was exhausted and had more scrapes than usual, but she was victorious. Without fanfare, I returned her to her Pokeball to sleep, then fell back to sleep myself.  
I woke up and made breakfast for myself with the remnants of last night's fire and a pack of tasteless, dehydrated trainer meal.  
“Oh Nozomi!” I called in a sing-song voice to my best friend, who immediately responded with happy whistling noises. I smiled, and shook my head, ‘Just like when we were younger…’  
I returned him to his pokeball, then slid the T.M. disc in between the two halves of the Pokeball to be scanned. Lime-green energy raced across the Pokeball in a spider-web like pattern, then stopped with a dramatic flash of white energy and a chirp. The T.M. was gone, digitized directly into Nozomi’s brain.  
I threw Nozomi’s Pokeball into the air to release him onto the ground in front of me, “You got it, buddy?”  
He nodded then looked up to me with his button-like black eyes, waiting for orders.  
“Get familiar with the Bug-type energy while I work with Edge, we might be needing you later, It shouldn’t be too hard around here, especially with so many bug-types around”  
The Goomy began to collect lime-green energy around his mouth as I walked out of the grove of trees and released Edge.  
In Pokeballs, depending on the setting, Pokemon bodies can experience a semblance of the passage of time, while their brains do not, so Edge was well rested when I released her. I checked her over, the minor scrapes and bruises she collected were healed. I marveled at the wonders of Pokemon biology, so superior to our own.  
“How are you feeling?” I could tell that most of the euphoric post-evolution hormones had left Edge and she was looking slightly less perky than before. Nevertheless, Edge nodded to show that she felt fine, “Well,I forgot to do this last night before I let you go, can you stand still for a moment?”  
I took out my Pokedex and scanned my Frogadier’s body until it beeped and new data began to show up on the screen.  
Frogadier, The Bubble Frog Pokemon and the evolved form of Froakie. Frogadier can throw Frubble covered pebbles with precise accuracy, hitting targets up to one hundred feet away-  
I scrolled past the basic description. I had that memorized since I was three. I went to the juicy stuff- like average sprint speed and grip strenth calculated from Edge’s age, size and sex.  
“Let’s test your physical capabilities now,”  
I set the Pokedex to now measure her abilities at a glance, I turned to Edge and pointed out a tree across the clearing, about 50 yards away, “Run from here to that tree as fast as you can,”  
In nine seconds flat, my Frogadier loped to the tree and back, nearly double the speed she had as a Froakie, and far faster than any normal human.  
I smiled, “Above Average! Now jump straight into the air,”  
Edge’s muscles tensed and released, rocketing more than twenty feet into the air before landing on her feet, also double than it was before. I set the Pokedex to continue analyzing, “Edge, keep testing your limits physically while I check on Nozomi,”  
I went back to the pond in the center of the grove, where Nozomi was currently practicing his new move. Infestation seemed to consist of a swarm of concentrated bug-type energy that encircled and constantly stung the target. I could see its use in capturing Pokemon in the way Nozomi used it on the trees around him, which were now peppered with tiny holes.  
The swarm traps its target as long as Nozomi concentrates, which for now was around 5 seconds, “Nozomi, try using less power and learning to concentrate on the move for longer, I want to use it as a trap instead of a damaging move,”  
He nodded and began to focus again as I went back over to Edge.  
Just as I picked up the Pokedex to look at her stats, a loud rustling echoed through the clearing as something crashed through the forest towards us.  
‘A pokemon? But nothing here is that big…’ “Edge, get ready!”  
She pivoted and got lower to the ground, battle ready.  
For the rest of the day I went back and forth between my two pokemon, training Nozomi in his use of Infestation and Edge in her use of her new body and its physical limits, breaking only for lunch and my daily meditation and self defense training at the end of the day to clear my head. My pokemon and I fell asleep quickly that night, exhausted by our efforts.  
After eating breakfast the next day, I decided to send Edge out to battle the native Pokemon, as battling was the best way to improve a Pokemon overall and I had no new moves to teach her as of yet. I worked with Nozomi on Infestation, trying to increase his concentration on the move, until Edge rushed out of the forest about four hours in.  
She seemed distressed about something, with urgency in her eyes, I walked up to her, “What’s wrong Edge?”  
She beckoned for me to follow her back into the forest, barely waiting for Nozomi to climb up my arm before leaping into the trees. Edge brought us deep into the forest, as we ran by, I could see some marks of her battling, an unconscious bug-type here, or a scarred tree there. Edge suddenly jumped down from the trees once we reached a seemingly innocuous small clearing.  
She pointed to the ground near a small bush, towards what appeared to be Pokemon tracks. I looked closer and realized that they were mammalian in nature, but not that of primate elemental monkeys or rodents like Pikachu or Rattata, these tracks were pawprints of some kind.  
“Perhaps it's a Pokemon from Route twenty-two, But the only two mammals from there that I could think of are Riolu or…” I pushed through the bush and came upon a large feline pokemon with a fiery mohawk slowly backing away from me into a tree, “Litleo…”  
Litleo were leonine Pokemon that lived in large prides up and down Route Twenty two, it was rare to find a lone Litleo like this one. That most likely meant that this Litleo was a male that was banished from his pride to find his own way into the world. “You must have been pretty strong to be pushed out this far, Do you want to battle?”  
The litleo cocked its head at me for a second, as if mulling over my question, then lunged for Edge, “I’ll take that as a yes then! Edge, use Water Pulse, get it back to the tree!”  
I set Nozomi down as Edge barraged the growling litleo with a slew of weaker water pulses to make it back up into the tree, “Edge, use quick attack over and over, exhaust it!”  
In a prolonged blur of movement Edge began to batter the litleo with Quick Attack as it tried to attack her with a flaming Ember. Thirty seconds passed of Edge constantly attacking the lion cub and dodging its counter attacks of Ember and Headbutt. Edge’s superior speed was too much for the wild pokemon to counter, especially with Quick Attack buffing her already impressive speed. The Litleo’s fight or flight instincts began to kick in and it tried to run, “Nozomi, make sure it can’t get away with Infestation!”  
A swirling mass of stinging bug-type energy surrounded the pummeled fire-type, preventing its escape and damaging it slightly. “Edge, finish him with Water Pulse!”  
The ball of watery aura crackled between her webbed hands as Edge flipped into the air above Nozomi’s infestation and plowed it into the fiery lion’s head, knocking it out. I quickly took out the great ball and threw it towards the Litleo, hoping the higher catch rate will account for the cub’s power. The blue and red Pokeball sucked the Litleo in with a slightly lighter shade of red light, as capturing is different than returning, then fell to the ground and began to shake as the Litleo’s unconscious mind fought against the capture.  
Ten seconds passed before the ball stopped shaking, nearly double the average time. I picked the ball up and held it close, I caught a new pokemon!  
“Great job Edge, Litleo was no match for your power,” My Frogadier basked in the praise, “Let’s go back and have lunch shall we?”  
I let Edge continue her battling after lunch, and even went exploring with Nozomi for a few hours, but the only thing on my mind was the Pokemon I had just captured. I went through my nightly routine of self-defense training, calling Edge in to train with me, then went to bed.  
I woke up and made myself and my Pokemon a full breakfast, we would need it to tame the Litleo. Fire-type Pokemon were well known for their aggression, and the fact that Litleo was carnivorous didn’t help matters. Both Edge and Nozomi were mostly herbivorous with only the occasional small fish or bug on the side. Carnivorous Pokemon were unruly unless their need to hunt was fulfilled, a problem for trainers with prey pokemon on their teams or owners of prey animals like cattle or sheep. Litleo would be tough to tame.  
I prepared Edge and Nozomi to protect me if the Litleo attacked me the moment it was released, then I held up the Great Ball and released the Litleo facing away from me.  
It came out with every hair on its body standing straight up and snarling, then it immediately turned and lunged for me, only to be beat down by Edge. I sighed and returned it, then released it farther away from me.  
“Litleo, I just want to talk, Please calm down,” The Litleo ignored my voice and opened his mouth to send an Ember my way. This time, Nozomi stepped up to protect me, combating the cloud of embers with Dragon Breath. I slowly walked towards the Litleo with my hands out non threateningly. Litleo lashed out with his claws as I got close, trying to Scratch me, and only to be rewarded with being returned and released even further away near the edge of the clearing.  
“Litleo, will you please just listen!” The Litleo tried to run into the forest, only to be returned again.  
Litleo got the idea and did not try to run or fight when I released him again.  
“Good,” Litleo glared at me warily as I came a foot closer to him, “Edge can you translate what I say?”  
Edge nodded and called to the litleo in their language as I began the same speech I had given to her long ago, “Litleo, I mean you no harm. Right now it might be confusing or even frightening that you were taken away from your habitat so suddenly and captured in this little ball,”  
I showed Litleo his Great ball, to which he snorted with disgust, “But this ball is a gateway to a world of unimaginable power if you choose to accept it. If you choose to accept me as your leader through thick and thin, I can bring you to your evolution and beyond,”  
Litleo perked up at the mention of his evolution, ‘So that’s how you tick’ “ Litleo, Your evolution might seem far away now, but if you become one of my partners, the time needed for you to evolve will shorten,”  
His golden eyes snapped up to mine, challenging me to uphold the promise, “Yes, Litleo, I promise to take you to heights of power and glory that any wild pokemon can only dream of, I know this because it happened to me,”  
Litleo cocked his head, confused, as a painfully familiar face flashed through my mind. Edge explained how I was talking about her, and that she had evolved a mere few days ago.

I noticed that the forest had gone completely silent. In my entire time here, the forest always had a background symphony of life, with Fletchling constantly calling to each other through the trees or Rattata rustling in the underbrush near the clearing or even the distant sounds of bug trainers on the main trail. There was nothing, nothing except a steadily growing buzzing sound, “Vespiquen…!”  
I immediately took one hand off of the Litleo, who had gone still at the sound and pressed the panic button on my Pokedex. As the buzzing grew to a crescendo that reached past my ears and began vibrating my very bones, I used my body to cover the Litleo then put my hands over my head, just as a writhing, aggressive swarm of Combee and Beedrill entered the clearing. They noticed my prone body and immediately attacked, 3 inch long stingers entering and leaving my body in an infinite series of punctures.  
My entire body was paralyzed with pain, I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything except be stung over and over again by the swarm. Litleo was mostly protected from their attacks by my body. What felt like hours passed until the swarm moved on, where were the Rangers?  
I could feel the blessed darkness slowly encroaching my mind. Is this the end? Those voices, they were nearby yet so...so far. I felt two new sharp pains on either side of my stomach, followed by a release of warmth that spread through my body. Was I dying? My mind, in shock most likely, went white. Leo was… he was wrong, I never became a great trainer, never even lived past route three, I’m...I’m so sorry…


	2. Love Travels On

Chapter 2- Love Travels On  
=====================================================================  
I gasped awake and sat straight up, as if from a nightmare. There was what looked like a hospital room around me, stark white sheets and all.   
“What is this?” One minute I was bleeding out from hundreds of stab wounds, now I was here, “Where am I?”  
“You’re in the Aquacorde Town Hospital,” A soft, familiar voice swirled through my mind as an Alakazam with a particularly long and silky mustache entered the room   
‘So I got a second chance...’“Sage! What happened? One minute I was swarmed by Combee on top of Litleo, the next I’m in a hospital bed,” Sage was one of my endorser’s, Jon Seven’s elite Pokemon. Jon was the Anistar City Gym leader and the father of a friend of mine, I was lucky to have him as an endorser. Trainer Endorsement was started in Galar as a way of weeding out weak trainers, you have to prove yourself to an accomplished trainer like a Gym leader or an Elite four member before taking on the Gym Challenge. The Kalos League had appropriated it and made it to fit its own needs, as had other nations and their Leagues.  
“You were lucky,” He floated over to me, coming to hover near the end of my bed, “A Combee Hive in the Santalune was disturbed a few days ago, you happened to be caught in the crossfire,”  
“Oh,” I processed the information, ‘Maybe it had something to do with the dead elite on Talisin’s team, did he have a Vespiquen?’  
“Yes, Stinger was her name, she died without an apprentice to overtake her,”  
“So that’s why they swarmed huh,”  
“Did you catch the Litleo recently? I don’t remember him,” Sage thought-spoke matter of factly, his massive intellect never forgets anything, “He is quite fearsome, the ranger had to knock him out before he was let anywhere near you, ”  
‘Litleo...protected me?’ “How’d they bring me back? Those Combee practically gutted me,” I was amazed at how little pain I felt, it was if I was sore from a hard workout instead of a near-death experience. I searched for a painkiller IV, but the only thing I was connected to was a heart rate monitor.  
“Blissey egg shots, I heard he needed to use two of them to revive you,”  
That explained a lot, Blissey extract was a near miraculous healing serum when it came to serious wounds. The egg elixir had revolutionized modern medicine with its ability to regenerate any tissue, human or pokemon.  
‘Hm, I’m glad I pressed the panic button for them to find me, if they needed to use Blissey shots it must have been bad,’  
“Quite, your psychic distress signals were through the roof, That is why Jon sent me,”  
“You could hear me from Anistar?” ‘That’s impressive,’ I picked off my heart monitor and began to stand up, ignoring the pain in my back and arms. I noticed tiny scars up and down the back of my limbs, all that remained of my meeting with the swarm.   
“No, that would take too much energy to keep up, Instead, we had placed a psychic marker on you before you left for Lumiose, it can tell when you are in danger,”  
“Oh, could you warn me next time about something like that, its a bit creepy,”  
“Of course, Would you like me to take you to your room here in the Pokecenter?”  
‘Hm, I forgot that Aquacorde’s Pokecenter is connected to the hospital,’ I looked down at my hospital gown, searching for my clothing or my Pokeballs, and finding none, “Yes, that would be appreciated,”  
“Jon would like me to add to not stress yourself for the next few days, as Blissey serum does not solve everything” I followed Sage as he floated out of the hospital and into the Pokecenter, which was chock full of trainers and Pokemon of all shapes and sizes.   
“Why are there so many trainers here? Aquacorde doesn’t have a gym.”  
Sage did not stop but spoke in, “Aquacorde is opening a brand-new Performance Theater. They are holding their first Contest for debut Performers tonight,”  
“Interesting,” I walked past a Brionne and her trainer as she balanced a precious ball of sparkling water on her nose, then followed Sage into the hotel space of the Pokemon Center through a hallway. He stopped in front of one of the numbered doors and floated a small white keycard over to me.  
“Here is your room key,” He tipped his head to me in a respectful nod, “Jon is calling me, Good luck,”  
He Teleported away without light or sound, a show of true mastery over the move. I opened the door to my room and looked inside.  
‘Wow, They must be pressed for rooms,’ My room was barely bigger than a closet with room only for a bed, nightstand and a mat for a small Pokemon. There was a new set of trainer clothing on the bed to replace the destroyed set and my backpack with my Pokeballs attached. I quickly got dressed, then I detached my Pokeballs and released Nozomi and Edge.  
Nozomi whined when he saw me, sliding on his slime to reach me and began to nuzzle my shin. I picked him up and put him on my shoulder. Edge was much more reserved, with only a glint of relief in her eyes to show that she was glad I was okay.  
“Guys, I’m fine,” I told them what happened with the swarm, with Nozomi making worried gurgling and Edge cocking her head in interest, “I’m going to let Litleo out now, protect me if he attacks,” ‘But I don’t think he will,’  
I held up the third Pokeball I detached, the blue and red coating shining in the fluorescent light. Edge jumped behind me, just as the bright red light coalesced into the Lion Cub Pokemon.  
The moment the last of the red light left his fur, Litleo lunged for me. On a hunch, I stopped Edge just in time for Litleo to hit my body, and begin to lick my face with his sandpaper tongue. I laughed, Litleo, once a feral beast, was worried about me! Nozomi shifted on my shoulder to allow Litleo access to my ears, then joined in with him, his slightly acidic spit tingling on the roughed up skin left by Litleo.  
“So, Litleo, do you want to join the team and get stronger?” I pulled Litleo off of my clothing, now covered in cat hair and placed him on the bed next to Edge. Litleo tail curled and uncurled as he nodded without hesitation, “Hmm, well, First things first, do you want me to give you a nickname? It will help me distinguish you on the battlefield.”  
I let Edge explain what a nickname is to Litleo in their own language, with Litleo wary of the Pokemon who defeated him at first, before calming after listening to her and getting a feel for the Frogadier’s cool personality. When Edge finished, Litleo looked towards me and shook his head.   
‘That was unexpected, I thought Litleo would want to be separate from all the others of his kind…’  
I studied the fire type closely for the first time since I caught him. He appeared to be about two years old, which meant that his full mane and evolution will not occur for about a year. His eyes were a fierce golden color, which accented his dark brown fur and fiery red mohawk. You could see some of his ribs through his fur, he wasn’t emaciated but the hard exoskeletons and potent poisons of most bug-types obviously gave him some trouble while hunting. He was a few inches shorter than Edge, but would most likely be taller if fed well. He was powerfully built and I could see how he would be a threat to his pride, ‘But how did you end up so far away from Route twenty-two?’  
“It’s okay if you don’t want a nickname, would you like one when you evolve?” I had heard of pokemon who wanted to differentiate themselves as an evolved pokemon instead of a lesser state, perhaps Litleo simply wanted to be known when he gets stronger. This time, Litleo had to think for a minute before answering with a nod, ‘So that’s how you work...you have honor,”  
“Welcome to the team Litleo,” I returned Edge and Nozomi, they still needed rest after two days of beating sense into Litleo. It seemed that the spirited Pokemon had been treated by Nurse Joy, his eyes were bright and his pelt no longer had scratches and bruises all along its surface.   
“Now Litleo, I’m going to hold up my Pokedex and scan you, Just hold still,” I took out and held up the phone-sized device to the lion cub. By scanning in Litleo, I would register him as my Pokemon in the eyes of the League, and I would do the same to register his evolved form later.  
The device beeped,  
Litleo, The Lion Cub Pokemon, The stronger the opponent it faces, the more heat surges from its mane and the more power flows through its body-  
I skipped the basic description and went down to his moveset,   
This Litleo knows the moves Tackle, Leer, Ember, Headbutt, Flare Blitz, and Noble Roar.  
‘A powerful egg move! He probably doesn’t have the ability for it yet, No wonder he was banished so far away,’ The egg move meant that Litleo’s father was a different pokemon than the lead Pyroar of his pride. Egg moves were not as rare as they once were, especially now with the many imported Pokemon from places like Alola and Kanto, but I would welcome powerful moves like Flare Blitz any time. I put away the Pokedex and began to walk towards the door without my excitement for the powerful move showing, he would learn in time, “Do you want to come get food with me? There’s going to be a lot of people and pokemon there, you might not be able to handle the noise…”  
Litleo yowled with indignation then hopped off the bed and stood his ground next to me, he wouldn’t be defeated by a little noise!   
“Okay, if you’re sure about it,” I opened my door and stepped out into the hallway, “Come with me,”  
He bounded out into the hallway at my side and we began to make our way to the Pokecenter’s cafeteria.  
‘What time was it anyways?’ I had no concept of how long I was unconscious, so I checked my Pokedex and discovered that it was almost noon the next day. ‘Wow I was out for nearly 24 hours...No wonder my Pokemon were nervous,”  
As we got closer and closer to the main lobby, Litleo’s ears pinned back more and more and he began to growl softly, yet when he noticed my eyes on him, his ears went back up and he acted like all was normal, ‘What a stubborn Pokemon,’   
I turned my head to him once we entered the busy lobby, “Litleo are you sure you don’t want to go back into your Pokeball?”  
Suddenly, the scars on my back lit up with pain as a young man slammed into me, nearly knocking me over.   
“Oh! I’m so, so sorry are you okay?” He apologized as I stood up woozily and the pain died down. The man gasped when he saw my face, “ Angel… is that you?”  
“Hmm?” I looked the man over, noticing his fine features and jet black hair, “Julien…?”  
“Aha! It really is you Angel! It’s been so long, where have you been?”  
“Where have I been...I should be asking you that question, it's been years,”  
“Oh, here and there, Hoenn has been kind to me,” He opened his cloak to show me two Contest ribbons with a slight smirk.  
“Wow...” I knew how hard it was to get even one Contest ribbon in Hoenn, where Pokemon Contests were just as popular among trainers as battling, it must have taken him at least a year to get even those two, “But why are you here? You need three more ribbons to enter the Grand Festival right?”  
“For training of course, after all, Kalosian Performers have that je ne sais quoi that lends them to winning” It was true that Performers seemed to have a special flair that give them the edge in the televised Contests I have seen, “But enough about me, Who’s this little guy, is he new?”  
Julien stepped back and crouched down to Litleo’s level. The lion cub growled suspiciously at him, to which Julien only held out his hand for him to sniff.  
“Yes, I just caught him a few days ago” I smiled as Litleo snapped at Julien playfully once he realized Julien wasn’t a threat, in return, Julien waggled his finger at him and got back up.  
“He’s already feisty like you, funny how Pokemon can be so much like their trainers so quickly,”  
“Hey,” I punched his arm lightly, “I might just sic him on you if you keep acting like that,”  
Litleo growled as menacing as a tiny lion cub could, only to be laughed at by Julien, “Still the same I see,”  
Julien put his arm around my shoulders and led me to one of the few open couches left in the Pokecenter, “Talk to me, it has been so long, what has happened to my Angelique,”  
“It’s been quite a year, with Leo and all,”  
Julien’s eyes darkened at the mention of our mutual friend, “Yes, I would have never expected you to become a trainer, it was always his dream...so, how many badges do you have?”  
“Just the one, it's a bit of a story,”  
Julien put his head on his palms, “Do tell,”  
Litleo jumped onto the couch and laid across my knees, his impressive body heat warming me to the core. I told Julien about my entire Gym battle and what came afterwards, all the way up to waking up in the hospital next to the Pokecenter. Julien’s expressive features showed his thoughts to me as if his face were an open book. His eyes widened with awe at the mention of Edge’s evolution, his dimples laughed silently at the trial it was to tame Litleo and the tightening of his jaw was all it took to show how afraid he was for me at the mention of the Combee swarm.  
“That is quite the story…” He had taken out a Pokeball in the middle of my story, and was in the process of throwing it up and down, before catching it in one hand when I reached the end. “ I want to propose a challenge, for old times sake, Angel will you battle me?”  
I hesitated, the last time we had a battle was right before he left, four years ago. It would be an interesting opportunity, especially now that Julien was a Contest trainer. “I don’t know…”  
Taking my hesitation for disinterest, Julien spoke up once again, “ Why don’t I add a little wager to the mix, If you win, I will give you an egg that I acquired from a fairy specialist in Hoenn,”  
My eyes twitched with interest, granting me a smile from my childhood friend, “And if you win?”  
“You get a front seat to my debut in Kalos, and become my volunteer from the crowd to dance with me, I heard you have a great waltz,”  
I smiled, ‘Oh, Julien,’ “It’s on,”  
“Who will you be using?”  
“ I believe Litleo needs a chance to prove himself, besides, I still need to hand off both Nozomi and Edge, they took quite the beating in the taming process,”  
“Outside in five minutes then,”  
“Yes,” We shook on it and I went to hand off my other two pokemon. The Nurse Joy on hand was so busy with all the trainers that she barely gave me a second glance once I gave them over. I exited the din of the Pokecenter to the battlefields in the back with Litleo at my side, who looked visibly relieved to be leaving the noise. A couple of other trainers were currently battling, so I walked over to the second field.  
Julien smirked at me from the other side, “You ready?”  
“What do you think?” I encouraged Litleo to take his place in front of me, he had seen the other trainers battling and was eager to begin, flame licking up and down his small mane. “Now Litleo, I know you are not used to this, but try to follow my orders in this battle, I’ll help you win,”  
Litleo responded with a growl, he was ready for anything.  
Julien threw a purple-colored Pokeball in the air, one that I knew well, “Allons-y, Adalene!”  
Red light poured onto the battle, growing and changing into the rabbit-like form of a Lopunny with gorgeous silver fur. My eyes widened, the last time I saw Adalene, she was but a tiny Buneary with twitchy ears, now her leopard features were almost humanoid. Her long, powerful legs were dwarfed only by her large ears, which now hung about two-thirds the length of the rabbit Pokemon’s body.  
Adalene was a special breed of Lopunny known as a Silver Fox, which accounted for her silvery fur, but it had been far less pronounced as a Buneary. Now, the silver in her fur glimmered in the noon day sun, as if drops of quicksilver had coated her ears and accented her body. I knew that Adalene must be an incredible Pokemon to have in performances, Julien had chosen his starter well.  
“Let’s begin. You have the first move, Angel,” Lopunny settled herself in front of Julien and opened her scarlet eyes, daring Litleo to attack her.  
“Litleo, Use Leer then attack, go for the ears!”  
The lion cub’s golden irises met Adalene’s and flashed, then he charged recklessly towards the Lopunny. Adalene seemed unnerved by Litleo’s eyes, so much so that she hardly noticed his Headbutt until it was too late. Still, her legs jumped up and out of the way, only getting clipped by the attack, before retaliating by slamming her feet into Litleo’s head and using it as a springboard to flip to the ground behind him.  
“Adalene, dance circles around him!”  
“Litleo, use Ember! Try to spread it in a wave, don’t let Adalene get close!”  
As Adalene began to dance to the beat of the battle, Litleo collected Embers in his maw until his cheeks seemed to be blown up like a Skwovet. He breathed out a voluminous cloud of burning ash in a circle around himself, with some of the embers landing on his fur and setting it on fire. The embers from his own internal flame did not seem to hurt him, in fact, the extra fire only seemed to egg him on, as if the heat of the flames stoked the fire in his own soul. I could see the potential for his egg move, his fire type skills were at peak performance.  
Meanwhile, Julien focused for a few seconds, then called out, “Adalene, Use Mega Kick once the Embers settle!”  
I cocked my head at the mention of the powerful move, Lopunny can only learn Mega Kick from a T.M or a mentor.  
“Litleo, use Work up, then Noble Roar, she may be fast but let's keep her guessing as long as we have cover,”  
A few seconds passed as the Embers settled to the ground, had Litleo refused my orders?  
Suddenly, as the last of the embers darkened.swirled, and fell to the ground, a voice like rolling thunder echoed across the battlefield in a throaty roar that couldn’t possibly come from the small body of my Litleo. Julien froze and Adalene stopped in her dance to turn and see where the sound had come from. In the beat of a second, Litleo jumped out of the remaining ash behind Adalene and Tackled her to the ground to begin sharpening his claws on her sensitive ears.  
Outraged, Adalene kicked Litleo off of her and tried to stand, yet Litleo was relentless now that he had the advantage. The greenish glow of Work-Up aided him in the strength of his attacks as he Headbutted her back down to the ground, then began to tussel and roll around with the Lopunny in the dust. Julien winced as his precious Contest Pokemon was put out of her depth by the one thing he didn’t expect from me or my Pokemon; good old-fashioned roughhousing.  
Litleo was well versed in the act of wrestling with other Pokemon, a remnant of his days as a young cub most likely. No part of Adalene was left unpummeled, from her delicate ears to her perfectly manicured feet. Julien visibly blanched at the amount of dirt and dust being pounded into her fur, he knew that there was only one way to save his Pokemon from complete disgrace.  
A red light encompassed Julien’s traumatized Lopunny as he called out,“Stop, Stop, we forfeit!”  
Litleo looked confused for a second at the absence of an opponent, before realizing what the strange light that had taken Adalene away was. He bounced back to my side, pride lighting up his dust-covered features. I knew now for certain that I had found a loyal battle partner, so different from the feral lion of only days ago.  
“So Adalene can’t handle a little tussle in the dust can she?” I taunted Julien, who walked across the battlefield with a smile, albeit a slightly sad one at his defeat.  
“You know my weakness then, ah Angel, you were always the strategic one,” He shook my hand, then sighed, “Well, we did have a bet…”  
I followed Julien back into the Pokecenter, then waited as he went to his room to grab his side of the bet. I sat on one of the few available couches near the back of the Pokecenter then looked down at the dirt-covered Litleo.  
“Litleo, we just won our first match together,” He shook off the dirt and made a smug noise, then jumped onto my lap again, I could tell that this would soon be a regular occurence, ‘That was too easy, perhaps Julien didn’t want Adalene dirty for her performance...but then, why would he use her in the first place?”  
I stewed in my thoughts for the five or six minutes it took for Julien to bring me the egg. He sat down next to me and revealed the shiny incubator with a flourish of his hands, like a master jeweler showing off a rare and beautiful diamond, “Your egg, as ordered,”  
“You just wanted to give me the egg didn’t you Julien, I knew you were pulling your punches,”  
He laughed and handed me the incubator, “Yes, think of this as a make-up gift for all the birthdays I missed,”  
“Julien…” I began to examine the egg. It was about a foot tall, a pretty standard egg size for most pokemon, and was a pure white color with a couple of blue and pink speckles across its surface. “How far along is it?”  
“It probably has a few weeks or so to go, the specialist said that it would be pretty obvious when it was ready to hatch,”  
I already had my suspicions as to what the egg contained but still asked, “Do you know what's inside?”  
“If I told you, that would ruin the fun wouldn’t it?” He gave me a ball with black, gold, and red markings, a Luxury Ball, “Put it in this when it hatches, the specialist said that it goes a long way to helping it evolve,”  
I smiled, most Fairy type pokemon and some “baby” pokemon evolve not from experience in battle or an evolutionary stone, but from the connections they made with their trainer. Somehow, the technology in a Luxury ball predisposes a captured pokemon to making a strong connection, or friendship with their trainer. It was a wonderful, and most likely expensive gift.  
“Ah, Angelique, do not worry about the expense. My Contest money was more than enough to pay for it, besides, this Performance will only add to that amount,”  
“Getting cocky are we?”  
“Ha, it is not being cocky if you know it to be true,”  
I shook my head, “You haven’t changed Julien,”  
For some reason, he seemed to grimance for a split second, then he looked at the time on his Pokedex, a noticeably Hoennese model, “Ah, though it burdens my heart to leave you, my Angel, it is time for me to prepare, Will I see you there?”  
“Perhaps,” I answered, knowing it will drive him crazy.  
He sighed and got up to leave the Pokecenter, “Adieu,”  
I stood up after he left and got my Pokeballs from the front desk. Both Edge’s Net Ball and Nozomi’s standard Pokeball were buffed to a shine, a special treatment the Pokecenter’s reserve for the night of a Performance. I nodded to the exhausted Nurse Joy at the front in thanks then left with Litleo at my side and the incubator in my arms to go back to my room.   
First, I released Edge next to Litleo on the small mat at the side of the bed. Then, I released Nozomi on my shoulder, he shook himself as if waking from a nap, then burbled at the sight of Litleo and I.  
“Litleo and I had our first battle while you were away,” I told the both of them, “Now, Nozomi remembers Julien, and Edge, you’ve heard of him correct?”  
Nozomi purred and Edge nodded affirmation, “Well, He is the one we battled, and I have to say, Litleo, you are going to make an incredible battler someday,”  
He growled pridefully, “Not only that, but as a result of his efforts, we gained a future team member,”  
I turned around, revealing to Edge and Nozomi the egg I had set down on the bed. Even Edge reacted to the beautiful white egg in awe, I knew that there would not be any problems integrating whatever hatched out into the team.   
“This is going to hatch in a few weeks, so in the meantime, I expect all of you to treat it with respect, If it comes out of the incubator for too long the Pokemon inside might die,”  
I looked at Litleo especially as I said this, I still did not trust him completely.  
“Now, speaking of the next few weeks, our plans to get to Cyllage City have been altered a bit.”  
I sat next to the bed and began to absentmindedly play with the Luxury ball, “We are not going to be taking the usual route back to Lumiose. I have decided to instead take the Allearth trail.”  
The Allearth trail was an alternate route through the temperate mountains of southwest Kalos. Though it cut the time between Santalune and Lumiose considerably, given that most trainers get held up at the Battle Chateau, it was chock full of dangerous pokemon and less trainers to battle; thus, it was far less popular than the conventional trail. I knew that it would be more of a challenge than the conventional trail, but I wanted to earn more experience in a wild environment so that I would not be underprepared for a situation like the swarm again, ‘It also gives a convenient excuse to avoid Camphier, I’m not ready for that yet,’  
“I feel that all of us need to get more in tune with nature, if I had listened to the signs of the forest around me and Litleo, we might have been able to take cover from the swarm, Also, the trainers we do find will be much more experienced than the wannabes we defeated on the route from Lumiose, We’re all going to get a lot more experience,”  
All of my team nodded their assent, they were reving for the challenge.  
“Okay, now that that is settled, I believe that a session in daycare for all of you guys is long overdue,”  
Both Nozomi and Edge reacted with excitement at this, while Litleo looked slightly bewildered.  
I turned my head to him, “Oh, you are going to like daycare, they give out plenty of treats, Come with me,”  
Leaving the Incubator on the bed with the Luxury ball, I led my small entourage down the hallway and a stairway to the basement of the Pokecenter.  
The basement of the Pokecenter boasted a cavernous room with multiple Pokemon training and play areas. There was everything any type of Pokemon could want, from piles of delicious scrap metal for the steel types, to a field of flowers under impressive UV lights for grass and bug types, and even a mini power station for electric types. I simply walked forward with my pokemon until we came to a reception desk manned by a light-haired girl in her thirties.  
“Hello, and welcome to the Aquacorde Daycare center, Are your Pokemon here for long term care or short term?”  
“Short term, I’m going to the debut tonight,” The difference between long and short term care is that the long term Pokemon are brought to a larger location right outside of town where pokemon can enjoy a more natural environment.  
“Alright then, who do we have today?”   
I plucked Nozomi off of my shoulder, placed him on the counter between myself and the lady and put his Pokeball beside him, “One dragon-type, prefers freshwater swamps if you have one,”  
“What a cutie! We have the perfect place for him,” She typed something on her computer, then hit a button on a small pager that was connected to the apron she had on. A tiny Natu appeared next to Nozomi and spirited him away to some far off part of the underground complex while the receptionist took his Pokeball, “Next?”  
“One recently evolved water-type, she likes being around fighting type pokemon,”  
“Ooh, We have a great spot for her,” She hit a different part of her pager and waited as Edge easily hopped onto the counter with her pokeball, a minute or so went by before a darkly pigmented machoke came by to take her to the fighting-type arena. “And last but not least?”  
“This is Litleo, fire/normal type, I recently caught him, If you have any experienced fire-types, that would be greatly appreciated,”  
Litleo growled pridefully at the mention of himself, which caused the receptionist to laugh, “Oh, Lassie’s going to love you,”  
This time, the receptionist took out a weathered Pokeball of her own and released a massive Arcanine, to which Litleo growled unsuredly at.  
“It’s okay Litleo, I’ll see you in a little bit, I’m sure Lassie is going to teach you a lot,”  
The good-natured Arcanine got down to Litleo’s level and began to growl and whine right back at him. After a small conversation between them, Litleo seemed comforted and both began to run farther into the daycare.  
“Lassie, Show him the ropes!” The receptionist called after the two fire types to an affirming bark from the Arcanine, She then turned to me, “Now, are there any special requests for their training during their stay?”  
“For the Goomy and the Frogadier, I would like a focus on defense and stamina,” I handed over my Pokedex for the receptionist to scan and give back, it proved that I was an active battling trainer and would receive their services for free, “The Litleo just needs a general introduction to training and perhaps an examination of his fire abilities, he has a powerful egg move that requires his pyrosac to be a bit more developed,”  
She finished typing in the instructions to send to the Daycare trainers in each of my Pokemon’s sections, then looked up at me and smiled, “That’s all, I hope you have a wonderful time at the Performance!”  
I went to the front yet again and asked the Nurse Joy for a ticket for the debut. She frowned and typed at the screen, but then brightened at the sight of what showed up, “You’re in luck! There are a couple of seats near the back that are still open, is that alright with you?”  
“That’s perfect,” I paid for the tickets then the electronic ticket was sent to my Pokedex.  
For the rest of the time until the debut, I stocked up for a month of travel, which sucked up the last of my reward money from my grinding on route four and the Gym, then napped with the egg until about an hour before the performance started. Then, I showered and got on my nicest set of clothing, which wasn’t saying much considering I was a trainer that just spent the last week in a forest. Finally, I walked from the Pokecenter across the Aquacorde town square to the shiny new Performance center and found my seat just as the debut started.  
Though I zoned out for most of the Performance, I knew the basics of how it worked. It was split into three rounds. The first usually depended on the town, in Aquacorde it seemed to be a sort of synchronized swimming contest between three contestants each time to a total of nine times. After this was a thirty minute intermission as the stage was set for the freestyle rounds. The first freestyle round also had three contestants on the stage at the same time with about two minutes allotted for each of the nine contestants. Finally, was the second freestyle round, the only one anyone pays attention to, which is why it is such a coveted spot for a debut.  
First up was a wispy ghost-type specialist. Her performance starred a Misdreavus with feathery, long, “hair” who sang in a chilling alto as the girl and a Sensu-style Oricorio danced around it.   
Next was a cheery girl with two Eevees, one with a fire stone tied to its wrist, and another with an ice stone. Almost everyone in the audience knew what was coming next, yet still applauded when the two eevee evolved into a Flareon and a Glaceon in a gorgeously choreographed dance of ice and fire. The trick was an old one but still a stunning display of timing, Julien would be hard pressed to top these two performers.  
I leaned forward in my seat as Julien was raised to center stage in a bowed position. Next to him was Adalene, who was cleaned of dirt but still had ruffled fur from her tussle with Litleo and a Roselia who, upon closer inspection, was male. Before he began, Julien studied the audience,as if looking for something. He did not seem to find it and made a small signal to his pokemon just as the track for his debut started.  
First, as a cheerful violin duet filled the ears of the audience, Julien and Adalene began to dance around the male Roselia. The Roselia leapt into the air and, to the surprised gasp of the audience, viciously severed the two roses from his arms. As each rose slowly floated to the ground, both Adalene and Julien caught one in their mouths.   
Julien’s rose was a deep blue not unlike the highlights of his hair, while Adalene’s was a bubblegum pink shade, the exact color of my hair. They began to dance to the duet together in a playful manner, one that evoked a feeling of childhood. At the climax of the duet, Julien took the flower out of his mouth and held it out to Adalene, who cocked her head, but then shot past him and continued dancing, as if they were still playing tag. One violin began to pull ahead of the other, the slower one a romantic harmony, while the faster continued the cheerful melody. Julien began to desperately chase after Adalene around the stage, the blue rose still clenched in his right fist.  
About three minutes of the five minute performance consisted of Julien almost catching up to Adalene, only to have her dodge, curve or flip out of the way, the pink rose firmly clenched between her teeth. The violins followed their movements, with the romantic one representing Julien and the playful one representing Adalene. I began to realize what this meant, but continued to watch, enraptured like the rest of the audience in Julien’s story.  
It was as if an invisible force refused to let Julien get to Adalene. The violins began to turn to a more mature tone, and just when it seemed like Adalene would stay still long enough for Julien to catch up, her violin ended on a high note and she left the stage. Julien stops as his violin begins a melancholy solo and kneels in the same position he was in when Adalene disappeared, desperately reaching out to the audience. His Roselia, who had been floating on conjured Fairy Winds to create special effects for Julien and Adalene’s dance, landed at Julien’s side and placed a cut arm on his shoulder. To end the performance, a single tear dropped from Julien’s chin and hit the ground just as his violin ended on a low, poignant note.  
The spell of the performance ending, I fully realized just what this dance meant to Julien. Just as the entire audience stood in a rousing ovation for his beautiful performance, I ran out of the performance center and back to the pokecenter.  
In a daze, I received my pokemon and a report of their progress, which I ignored for the moment. I stumbled into my room and released all of my pokemon, with Nozomi in a small tank that must have been sent in while I was gone.  
All of them noticed my change in attitude. Edge looked me in the eye with silent affirmation, a fresh coat of moisture shining on her skin, while Nozomi tried to make me laugh by making bubbles in the water. Litleo simply jumped up into bed with me, a routine that I knew was soon to be a regular one. I fell asleep to his comforting warmth with a single thought running through my mind, ‘Julien…’  
I woke early the next day with a refreshed mind and new resolution, I had to put Julien behind me for now. To start, I busied myself with going to breakfast with my Pokemon, then returned them, and packed up the incubator and luxury ball into my trainer bag. A Trainer’s bag is a marvel of modern technology that brings supplies and other items into the same digital dimension as Pokeballs. Though it was very expensive to purchase, my bag more than pulls its weight by allowing me to travel lightly with all of my survival gear, speeding up the time it takes to travel significantly.   
I checked out of the Pokecenter and decided to start my journey on the Allearth Trail by cart. I hitched a ride with a Gogoat shepherd who would take me to the first ranger station about twenty miles into the trail, in the foothills of the Blackbelt Peaks. The man was old and stoic, not much of a talker, which suited me just fine. I passed the time by reading the progress reports of my Pokemon, as slowly rolling green hills passed me by. In time, all thoughts of my old friend were pushed away into a back corner of my mind.  
-Goomy performed well in his training, especially with his defense based moves such as Protect and Bide. However, he did not do as well in stamina training, using the move Protect takes a lot out of him, to the point that he could only use it once or twice before he exhausted himself. We suggest stamina training in that particular move until he could graduate to passively defending himself against single attacks while counterattacking, his species is well known for being stationary powerhouses after all. Another suggestion is to start focusing on his mid to long range attacks such as Water Pulse and Dragon Breath. A final observation is Goomy’s developing skills in changing the weather, it was not quite the move Rain Dance as of the end of Day Care but he is very close. In closing, it was a pleasure to work with your little dragon, he loved playing with all of the water and grass types!  
\- Frogadier shows an expected improvement in all her skills since the Froakie we previously had on record. She performed well in the stamina side of training, but, since her species has little in the way of natural defenses, we worked on speed and deflection instead of taking hits. We noticed that she has a new development in a previously hidden ability, Protean, it is quite powerful and we suggest that she trains with or against strong pokemon that are not her aura type of water. She has the spirit of a fighting type, I can see why you requested her to train with us.  
-Litleo improved the most out of your Pokemon today. Though at first wary, he grew to enjoy training drills, especially those disguised as games such as tag (stamina/speed), wrestling (strength/attack), and Fire Chicken (attack stamina/defense), a particularly wild game in which our fire pokemon throw flames at each other until one either chickens out or exhausts themselves. He does have an increased affinity for fire than most Litleo, which will allow him to use the powerful move Flare Blitz. However, he will not be able to use it properly until he evolves and gains a larger pyrosac. We suggest that he continue to work on basic skills until he is on par with the rest of your team and perhaps shaping his rather powerful Ember into a Flamethrower.   
‘Ah, Daycare always is spot on with the training suggestions, this was just what I needed,’ As I finished reading the rather expansive raw data on my pokemon’s exact abilities, the cart stopped at the Ranger station, a large wood complex on a raised foundation. I tipped the shepherd, then continued on foot past the station into the largest foothills of the Blackbelt Mountain Range. Two hours of looking for a suitable shelter later, I found the perfect cave about ten minutes off the official trail, with a dirt field for training right outside of it. I released my Pokemon, checked the cave for any wild Pokemon, which there was none, then set up camp. By then, it was only about 6:00 so I set Edge and Litleo to a no-holds barred game of tag, making sure Edge would reign Litleo back in if they got too far away. Next, I asked little Nozomi to try practicing his underdeveloped Rain Dance in the middle of the field as I did my self defense training nearby, so I could help him if needed.   
Three hours later, a light rainfall that was partially Nozomi’s fault fell upon the field, my extremities were numb, and Litleo and Edge came back exhausted from a romp that had more than a few scuffles with the local rock and ground-type Pokemon. I collected firewood and lit a fire in the cave with the help of Litleo, cooked and ate our food then took out my bedroll and laid it next to a strangely smooth boulder to act as my pillow. Then, I returned Nozomi and Edge, and took out the incubator from my backpack. During the ride, I had also taken the time to read about Pokemon who evolve through friendship, and apparently, talking to the egg shortens the time needed for its evolution considerably. I took out the egg and began to tell it, and the ball of dark fluff that was Litleo at the foot of my bed about myself. Twenty minutes later, my eyes were drooping, so I replaced the egg and put the incubator back into my backpack, and fell asleep before my head even reached my unconventional pillow.   
I woke to Litleo’s rough pawing with a crick in my neck.   
“Unngh…” I rubbed my eyes as I got up and looked at the boulder that had caused me so much trouble.  
“Litleo, you can go outside to do your business,” I released both Edge and Nozomi to do the same and looked closer at the rock, there was something about it…  
I gasped, causing all three of my pokemon to rush back inside. The unnatural smoothness, the jutting structure, it was a fossil! ‘What are the chances… well, I guess this means we’re making a pit stop in Ambrette before we get to Cyllage, this thing is huge.’   
“Litleo, Edge, help me get this out of the ground,” We loosened the rock with a combination of hot fire type moves and cooling water pulses. The fossil was about three feet wide and shaped like a pointed dome, a. Since the fossil would not fit into the mouth of my bag, I simply captured it with an extra Pokeball, confirming that it had viable Pokemon DNA, and placed it into my bag for safe keeping.  
Taking the discovery of the fossil as good luck, I began a month-long journey to Ambrette Town through the Allearth Trail. During this time, I got a decent amount of money from the occasional trainer I came across such as rare bug catchers and fighting type trainers in the mountains, enough to get a few T.M.s once I reached civilization. Other than the occasional battle, I mostly trained, until one day, about a week and a half in.  
At this time, I was well into the Blackbelt mountains, and the fighting type pokemon they were well known for were becoming more and more common. Following the daycare’s advice, I had Edge out to battle at all times, which she enjoyed immensely especially when she could lord it over Litleo during our nightly training sessions. It was in the middle of my travelling hours with Edge, and we were currently traversing one side of a small, flat valley, when my Pokedex beeped at my side,  
“Warning, large gathering of wild fighting type pokemon sighted nearby,”  
“You know, you should change that to vibrate, it can attract the wrong kind of attention out here,” I fumbled with my Pokedex, turning it to silent mode as a man with dark hair and red eyes stepped out of a small cave and stretched, as if just getting up.  
I recognized his face, it was Shoto, the Shalour city gym leader famous for his Champion Match in which he lost his Blaziken last year, “You...You’re Shoto the fighting-type gym leader! Wha-What are you doing out here”  
“Ah, You have a good eye,” The phrase sparked something in my mind, he reminded me of Shiro, the Ranger who saved my life, “I’m out here on sabbatical, while my trainers take care of the gym, Now what do we have here?”  
He dropped to Edge’s level, who stepped back a little at his now intense gaze.  
“It’s okay Edge, he’s a gym leader, he won’t hurt you,” Edge looked up at me, then stepped forward and looked at Shoto with a quiet fury in her eyes, most likely remembering her last gym battle.  
Shoto cocked his head and smiled, “She’s got quite the fire, You know what, I’m in the mood for a battle, So, Edge, is it, do you want to battle a future member of my elite team? No strings attached,”  
I studied Shoto, as Edge nodded vigorously, ‘A future member of his elite team, huh, he must have seen something in Edge...what was it?’   
“Come with me,” Shoto brought me down to the small, rocky valley and released his starter, a battle-scarred Infernape, “Is it alright if Kazuya watches, he enjoys watching potential bloom,”  
“Sure,” Edge leaped to the center of the makeshift field as Shoto tossed a relatively new Pokeball into the air. The red mist coalesced into a small, white, rabbit-like figure, a Scorbunny, before it could even blink, I ordered, “Edge, Quick Attack with Water Pulse!”  
In the span of a split second, a ball of water slammed into the little fire bunny before it could even react, “Now, back off, see what it does,”  
“I like the way you think, Hokage, Double Kick!” Shoto commented as the little bunny raced after Edge and slammed into her with both feet, then, something strange happened. The golden light of Fighting-type aura that usually only coated a pokemon’s legs for the span of Double Kick, now coated Scorbunny's entire body.  
‘Hmm, could it have Protean?’ “Edge, react with a water pulse,” Edge shoved the ball of water at the Scorbunny’s center mass as it landed, but it dodged with ease.   
“Low Sweep,” The rabbit kicked outwards and sweeped Edge’s legs from under her. Edge faltered for a second, but quickly flipped upwards and began to fight the bunny hand to hand. They danced across the field in a series of punches and kicks, neither having the time to collect their energy to perform an actual move. Even though the scorbunny was physically smaller and weaker than Edge, it quickly gained the upper hand through its greater technique. It kicked and punched in a way that suggested extensive martial arts training, something Edge lacked. Just as Edge was about to land a solid hit, the bunny flipped out of the way and placed her into a solid Johtoan jujitsu hold that I knew from a glance was nearly impossible to get out of. I needed a miracle, so, as a last ditch attempt, “Edge, Use Lick!”  
The rabbit’s hold grew tighter and tighter as Edge tried desperately to gather the ghostly energy, her tongue rolling about in her mouth. He was forcing her to submit, choking her out, with Edge’s skin turning more and more purple with each passing moment. Just as it looked as if Edge would pass out from the effort, she managed to force her tongue out of her mouth and lash out. It caused the Scorbunny to flinch, but the tough little bunny stood his ground, if something doesn’t happen soon, Edge will lose this fight.  
Then, I noticed something strange, the purple skin around Edge’s neck from the hold had now spread across her entire body, I blinked, and she appeared behind the Scorbunny instead of in his paws! She pounded a water pulse into the bunny’s back before he could react and her skin returned to normal.  
Shoto locked eyes with me, intrigued, and I realized what happened when the Scorbunny counterattacked with a Flame Charge and continued their melee. Edge had used her Protean Ability for the first time, gaining the abilities of a ghost type, including their intangibility!  
Both Edge and the rabbit upped the ante on their melee, becoming a blur of fiery red and watery blue, so fast that neither Shoto nor I could yell commands even if we wanted to. Edge would not fall for the same trick twice, and it looked like it would be a draw between her raw strength and his technique, until the little Scorbunny began to glow.  
He was evolving mid-fight, Edge fought against his shifting form to no avail as the Scorbunny shot up to the same height as her, and a new Raboot stepped out of the light. The fight began to go heavily in the Raboot’s favor, even with her type advantage, the rabbit’s new fire began to beat her into the ground. The Scorbunny was fast before, but the Raboot was literally on another level. In fact, the Raboot seemed to be playing with Edge, dodging her kicks and punches as if she were a hatchling. It smirked at her desperate attempts to attack, then began his counter attack.  
He shot around the field in a combination of Flame Charge and Agility, that was so fast that it was hard to follow, before leaping into the air and slamming both feet into Edge’s head before she could even react. Dust plumed into the air, and it was unclear if Edge was fast enough to counterattack. I held onto one last hope that our training might have been enough, until the dust cleared to reveal a proud Raboot hopping off the broken body of Edge and walking back to his trainer.  
I lifted my Netball to recall her, but no, she still had some fight left! My Frogadier stood on two shaky legs as scarlet oozed from multiple cuts across her torso and broken arm. However, the Raboot just sneered at her and recalled himself, she wasn’t worth fighting. Edge clung to her stance as long as she could, but had to give into her injuries and collapsed, so I returned her. I was saddened by my defeat, though that was quickly taken over by my pride at giving the gym leader a run for his money even if it was on a weaker pokemon than the gym norm.  
Shoto came over to me with his Infernape and shook my hand, “I am sorry for Hokage’s attitude at the end, he is arrogant at the best of times and with the evolution hormones…”  
“I get it, Edge is one of my chillest Pokemon, she’ll probably be okay with it,”  
“Now, your Pokemon, are you aware of her special ability?” Shoto seemed to look around, “Ahh, it looks like we gathered quite the audience, didn't we?”  
“Ye…” I interrupted myself to study my surroundings. All around us on the two mountains that surrounded the small valley were fighting types of every size, shape and variety. It was mostly first evolution types like Machop, Tyrogue, Pancham and Mienfoo, but I spotted the occasional second or third evolution such as Machamp, Gurdurr and Mienshao. They must had been watching the entire fight, I was so focused on Edge that I hardly noticed, “Huh, guess the Pokedex was right, what do you think they want?”  
“Hmm, I believe they heard the sounds of battle and were attracted to it,” Shoto’s Infernape hooted a greeting to the collection of fighting types, who were beginning to trickle into the valley, “I believe they want to train with us, I would release your other Pokemon, things might get ugly if we refuse.”  
I immediately released Nozomi and Litleo who growled when he saw the Pokemon around us. I watched Shoto release his other elite Pokemon, a Machamp, Lucario, Gallade, and Decidueye, with the noticeable absence of his Blaziken after his Championship fight a year ago plus a couple of other fighting types that I assumed were part of his gym team.  
And so began an impromptu melee training session. Shoto’s team took on the tougher fighting types such as Machamp, Conkeldurr and Pangoro, while Litleo played rough with the Machop and Pancham and Nozomi learned from a massive Hariyama and its offspring. Though I knew Edge would love this, I wanted her to heal in her Pokeball a little, both mentally and physically. An hour in, I noticed Shoto begin to spar with the fighting types himself. I initially refused, but when a particularly adorable Riolu came up to me with a simple question on its dog-like face, I couldn’t refuse.  
It’s been a while since I sparred with a physical being, at first I was rusty, but I quickly was sucked into the rhythm of an actual fight. I could tell the Riolu was holding back, even the simplest fighting-type move would shatter my bones after all, ‘Though I could have sworn I saw Shoto tank a Karate Chop from a Machamp, probably just my imagination…’ It was exhilarating, and before I knew it, it was getting dark and most of the fighting types had already scattered to the mountain’s various caves. I finished up my current match with a Machop, called Litleo over and returned Nozomi, then began to look for a cave in one of the valley mountains to make camp.  
Shoto beckoned me back, “Here, you can camp with us for the night, I still want to discuss our battle,”  
I began my nightly routine of making dinner for myself and Litleo while Shoto and I talked,  
“To answer your question, yes, Edge has Protean, she hasn’t activated it before now though, did you know about it?”  
“Quite observant aren’t you,” He sat on a rock next to the small fire as I heated up my trainer rations and fed Litleo his dry food, “Yes, my brother Shiro told me about the young girl with the Frogadier he met in Santalune, I did not expect to meet you so soon,”  
‘No wonder he looked familiar, He looks just like Shiro,’ “Your brother saved my life in Santalune after a Combee swarm, I owe him,”  
“He always had a hero streak…” Shoto continued as I ate my meal, “ Hokage has a similar ability known as Libero. They were evenly matched, at least in the beginning. If I were you I would put priority on technique with her, try sparring with her like you did with the fighting pokemon today. You’ll be surprised at how fast both you and your Pokemon progress if you train together instead of apart. Other than that, your Frogadier needs to figure out Protean by herself. I look forward to testing you on the battlefield,”  
I drank the advice in, It had never occured to me to train with my pokemon instead of above them. However, the emphasis he placed on you in the last part unsettled me, what would his gym battle be like? Though I had seldom watched Pokemon battles or contests on TV when I was a child, even I knew that a Gym leader decides the type of battle, and that it varies from Gym to Gym or even from Gym battle to Gym battle. I put a mental note to watch Shoto’s previous battles anyhow, just in case.  
I finished my rations and pulled out the egg as Litleo rolled in the embers of the now dying fire.  
“Is that…” Shoto marveled at the egg as it sparkled in the flickering light, “That’s quite the rare egg,”  
“It’s a gift from a friend,” I took the egg out of the incubator and began to talk with it as Shoto watched. At first, I was self -conscious, but soon, he simply faded into the background. A while later, Shoto made his farewell and left the cave, just as I finished my conversation and put the egg back. I crawled into bed and slept soundly, content with my encounter for the day.  
The next two and a half weeks were full of training, I intergrated my self-defense training with theirs and was soon doing suicide sprints with Litleo, swimming with Nozomi and sparring with Edge. After her battle with the Raboot, Edge worked herself harder than ever, especially when it came to her ability, it was almost second nature for her to become ghost-typed now, and I couldn’t wait until I could widen her movepool with T.M.s once we got back to civilization. It was when I was on the last leg of my journey through the mythical All-earth forest when something incredible happened.  
It was at the end of a long, hard day of travel and harsh training with my Pokemon. Litleo was so tired that I had to return him after our dinner, leaving me alone on my bedroll with the egg. In the past week, the incubator had been sending mixed signals about the egg, and the egg was cool to the touch. If Julien was anything to go by, whatever's inside should have hatched by now, I was worried.  
I began my conversation, “Hi little buddy, how are you doing today,”  
I felt the surface of the egg, It was ice cold, not a good sign. There was nothing to suggest that the egg was ready or about to hatch. “Not doing so good huh?”  
I told the egg about my day as I do each night. Litleo had learned Fire Fang about a week ago and was learning to use it in conjunction with other moves, such as Work Up and Takedown to make a sort of Fire Fang Blitz, a useful combo that uses a relentless Takedown as an opening to a series of buffed Fire Fangs. “It was funny to watch him try the tricky combo over and over again on the poor trees and boulders of the Trail, he still has the bump on his head from his first attempt. Nozomi tries as hard as ever, he mastered Rain Dance, Water Pulse and Dragon Breath, and is now working on Body Slam. He’s so close, but still needs to learn to coat his entire body with Normal-type aura instead of just his foot. Edge seems to have a fire lit under her ever since our battle with Shoto. She loves our spars even though she has to hold back and has even started to learn the rock-type move Smack-down early. I’m a bit worried about her though, she works herself to the bone every day, that can’t be healthy, even for a prime specimen of a Frogadier like Edge. I should tell her to cool down a little bit; I can’t believe I’m telling that to a water type Pokemon, but she certainly needs it.”  
By the end of my explanation, my eyes were drooping, as a deep exhaustion finally began to register in my bones.   
“So, little buddy, you better come out soon,” I yawned and began to lay back onto my pillow and put the egg back into the incubator beside me, “ ‘Cause if you don’t by tomorrow, I...I’ll…”  
I fell asleep, and woke what seemed like seconds later. The egg was no longer by my side!   
I stood up and looked all around, I was still in the clearing, but there was no campsite and a thick mist swirled around me. There was nothing around me, nothing except a large, mossy rock right where my campfire would have been. I looked atop it, and there, in all its shimmering white glory, was the smooth, ovoid form of my egg. I tried to move towards it, but I couldn’t move, and only watched as a golden hoof appeared out of the mist in front of the rock. The hoof was followed by the most beautiful pokemon I have ever seen.  
He was cervine in body with thin cobalt and black fur and golden accents. A seven point crown of antlers topped his head, adorned with crystals in every color of the rainbow. Xerneas, the Life Pokemon and the most beloved Legend in Kalos. His infinitely knowing black eyes locked with mine, acknowledging me and I froze in my efforts to watch him touch the egg with his nose.  
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a bird-like shadow as large as Xerneas lept from the egg, it’s cold blue eyes burning with hatred, then it turned and flew past me deeper into the forest. Xerneas gave chase, leaping across the clearing in an instant, before he was gone, somewhere in the misty All-earth forest.   
I shot awake to the incubator beeping loudly as the egg began to rock back and forth inside. It was hatching! I immediately moved aside my blankets and brought the incubator in front of me.  
A shimmering gold dust flaked off of the little egg to reveal triangular patterns of red and blue. The egg shook harder and harder as I realized just what sort of Pokemon Julien had gotten me. Then, two little feet and arms poked out of the previously unknown weak spots of the hard shell, wiggling fruitlessly on the smooth floor of the incubator. A crack appeared at the top of the egg then another, and another. The incubator collapsed to let the egg roll into my waiting arms as pieces of shell fell away to reveal tiny soaked, white feathers. Finally, as the remaining pieces of shell drop away, the off-color white crest of the newborn unfurls from the tight confines of its egg and two little brown eyes open to its first sight.  
“Toge-piii?” the baby Pokemon asks as it stares at my face in wonder.  
“Hi little buddy,” The Togepi chirps with joy at my voice, and I bring out a ball with red, black and gold markings, “I think I’m going to call you Felix,”  
I captured the little ball of happiness with ease, ‘I better keep you there until I reach a Pokecenter, just in case,’  
I checked the time, it was about five in the morning, the time I usually wake anyways. I released my pokemon and told them about the hatching, but that we wouldn’t be able to see it until we get him checked at a Pokecenter. They helped me pack up the campsite and make breakfast, then I returned all of them except Edge and went on my way, wondering whether or not my dream was real the entire way to Ambrette Town Pokecenter.  
I checked in my Pokemon, with the exception of Felix. After the rest of my Pokemon left with the Pokecenter Wigglytuff I asked if I could come with the nurse for the last one.  
“My last Pokemon just hatched today, I want to make sure I’m imprinted before you checked,”  
“Oh! I just love babies! Follow me, I know just the place” The young nurse seemed very excited and quickly led me to a private examination room in the back, ‘They haven’t gotten to her yet, that’s rare these days…’  
“It’s a little Togepi,” Currently, little Felix is technically genderless as the Pokedex is unable to scan what its gender is until Felix evolves. Until then, I’ll use him as a stand in.  
I released him on the examination table facing me.  
The tiny ball of happiness did not seem to realize or care that time had passed while he was in the Luxury ball and simply chirped joyfully at the sight of my smiling face, no imprint problems there. Nurse Joy did her work quickly as I distracted little Felix with sweet nothings.  
He barely reacted to her pokes and proddings with me there, even a full round of vaccinations only made him softly cry out until I got his attention by tapping his foot and began to talk with him again. At the end of the exam, the Nurse gave Felix a clean bill of health and sent me on my way. I returned him and grabbed my room key and my other pokemon from the front desk then journeyed to my room.  
I released Felix onto the ground and tickled a few of his delicate spikes to perk him up.  
“Now little guy, I have a couple of friends I’d like you to meet, they’re going to be your buddies for a while, you ready?”   
“Pii?” I found it curious that the fairy Pokemon really did say its name like they do in the cartoons, it was a strange quirk probably as a result of listening to my speech for as long as it did.  
“Okay, now first up is Nozomi, you heard me talk about him, he’s my starter and my closest friend, he’s been excited to meet you for a while,” ‘Nozomi should be the easiest for Felix to swallow, I’ll do Edge next and Litleo last,’  
I released my Goomy right next to Felix. Nozomi burbled at the sight of me, then turned to Felix and gurgled with joy. The Goomy inched closer and closer to Felix so as to not scare him, then tackled the little spike ball with affection when he chirped back at him with the same amount of joy. I could tell they would be two peas in a pod.  
“Okay, Okay,” I pulled the two apart with a squelch, ‘That went well,’ “Now, Next up is Edge, she’s the one who acts really cool, but she’s a softie on the inside,”  
I released her in a flash of red. Edge didn’t immediately react as the daze of release faded from her eyes, but she cocked her head when Felix chirped again. She folded herself in a squat to get to Felix’s level and watched him curiously as he waddled up to her and fell on his face, only to get up again and chirp in greeting as if nothing had happened. Edge looked up to me and nodded, Felix will do.  
“Okay, finally is my newest friend besides you, his name is Litleo, he has a fierce and fiery spirit, he’s been working on Fire Fang Blitz,” ‘Now he’s the one I’m worried about, I’m not totally sure about predicting his actions like I am about the other two, Here we go,’  
I released Litleo from his Great Ball a little ways away from Felix, to give Litleo time to process before the little Togepi tried to come over. He froze when he saw Felix and growled curiously.  
Felix took it as a sign that Litleo didn’t like him and began to cry softly with a little frown on his face. Litleo looked affronted at the sound, then his face softened as he realized where this Pokemon came from from Felix’s egg-like shape. He immediately got lower to the ground and made a soft sound that I never heard him use before. It was a breathy humming sound that he changed as he got closer to the Togepi. Felix looked up at him with a trembling lip, confused, until Litleo got in his face and licked him affectionately, his sandpaper tongue ruffling the baby’s miniscule feathers.  
I breathed a sigh of relief I didn’t realize I was holding, glad that all had gone well.  
“Well, now that that's over and done with, I’m going to the Ambrette Pokemon Lab for a bit, Edge, can you watch these three and make sure they don’t escape while I’m gone?”  
She nodded and leaned against the wall, keeping an eye on my other three Pokemon.  
I left the room and went to the lobby of the Pokecenter.  
Currently, the Pokecenter was mostly full of civilians with Pokemon companions. They were here for a special event at the famous Ambrette Fossil Lab, a hatching of the first Tyrunt since their extinction. Fossils had always been cloned sterile since the technology came out nearly a century ago. Sterility had always been a practical choice as the scientists worked to make fossil pokemon a reality in modern battling. It would have opened a can of worms the pioneers of the technology weren’t ready for. Now, with all the kinks to make fossils reliable battlers worked out, scientists turned to the next challenge, releasing fossil pokemon into the wild safely so that all trainers have a chance at the rare pokemon.  
I ventured out into the dusty streets of Ambrette and followed the helpful event signs that led me to a massive complex just outside of town. The lab consisted of multiple enclosed environments suited for fossils, a cloning lab and many side labs that focused on the reviving and cloning of ancient plants and bacteria.  
I continued along with the signs to the reception area. It was a few more hours until the predicted time of hatch, so the receptionist looked at me strangely as the door slid open and closed behind me.  
“I’m sorry, the lab isn’t open to civilians until twelve, “  
“Oh no, I’m not a civilian, I came here to get a fossil revived,” I said as I flashed her my pokedex as proof of my I.D. “You still do that here right?”  
“Uhhh,” The young receptionist looked out of her depth as she checked something on her screen, “I don’t believe the lab is open for anything today, all of our scientists are observing the hatch,”  
“Nonsense Sheila,” A tall, grey-haired man with a Helioptile on his shoulders strode into the reception area just as I made to leave, “We can’t refuse any fossil findings even today, what if this young trainer found a new species or variation? Why, we could be refusing the find of the century,”  
“Are you sure?” I asked, turning around to face the man and his pokemon. He seemed to be a scientist or professor of some sort, as he was wearing an unbuttoned lab coat with an ID around his neck, “I mean I could always come back tomorrow, you guys must be busy with the hatch and all,”  
The scientist laughed, causing the small electric lizard to shift as to stay on his shoulders, “Let’s just see the specimen first, then I can decide If it is more worth my time than looking at a simple egg,”  
I pulled out the extra pokeball that held the fossil, which the scientist seemed to note as a good sign with a grin. I released the three-foot wide rock a few feet in front of him. At first, he had no reaction to it, but once he bent down to look closer, his eyes widened in amazement, and then seemed to fill with a sort of hungry desire.  
“I’ve never seen a specimen this large...could this be...” He seemed to mutter to himself before he stood up and pivoted to the sliding doors that led to the rest of the lab, “Come with me, we must find an examination room,”  
I returned the fossil and just barely got through the doors as they closed, then I jogged to keep up with the man’s fervent pace. We were in a hallway of sorts bordered on both sides by multiple large glass windows. Past each window I got a glimpse of different environments for different kinds of fossil pokemon. One was a snowy tundra for Aurora and Aurorus, then a grassy plain for Shieldon and Bastiodon, an aquarium for Lileep and Cradily, next a jungle area for Velozolt and Dracosteg and of course a rocky mountain top for the famous Tyrunt and Tyrantrum.  
We passed the environment hallways and entered the cloning labs, where a few pokemon were in various stages of growth, like an omanyte in the middle of growing a shell and an archen curled in a fetal position. Finally, we found ourselves in an abandoned cloning lab with a large table, most probably for revived fossils of larger pokemon like Aerodactyl and Armaldo.  
The doctor swiftly pivoted towards me and extended his hand, with the Helioptile mimicking his motion, “Ah, I forgot introductions in the excitement, My name is Dr. Louis Kensington, of the Kalosian Pokemon Paleontology Unit, and this is my assistant, Hugo, what is yours?”  
“I’m Angel,” I shook his hand,then the Helioptile, “So, what type of fossil do you think this is, Doctor?”  
“Release it on to the table, I want to confirm my suspicions,” The doctor busied himself with gathering different lab equipment as I did so, then got to work on analysing the fossil with all matter of gadgets and samplers. The Helioptile hopped down from his shoulders and brought him each instrument as he asked for it.  
About ten minutes went by without him saying a word as he studied the plethora of readouts from the lab equipment, then he spinned to me with a grin just on the edge of insanity.  
“This, my Archeus-sent Angel, could be the best find of my career. It’s a Skull fossil, one three times larger than any anyone has ever found, Do you know what this means?”  
“It has a King’s Nature…” Pokemon with the gene for the King’s Nature are extremely rare, the gene causes a pokemon to grow to gargantuan proportions, becoming a “king” of their respective species. As far as I know, there has not been a King Skull fossil found in recorded history, so this is a truly great find, “What do we do?”  
“Why, revive it of course!” He put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes, “Normally, I would have you pay a small fee to revive a fossil you found, but this, this I’ll do for free,”  
He heaved the fossil onto one shoulder, the Helioptile scurrying between his legs and placed it in a machine that looked like a copper oven.  
“What are you going to do to it?” I asked as he shook the dust from his hands and pressed a button on the machine, which began to hum with power.  
“Well, first, this machine is going to extract the viable dna from the fossil and send it to the combiner, which adds dna from modern rock-type pokemon to fill in any missing parts,” He walked to one of the cloning pods, “We activate the dna to create a fertile egg cell then place it in one of these Genesis pods, in which the Pokemon grows for a couple of months to full size, this is also when we give the clone its updated immune system. Finally, we release it into one of our enclosed environments to get them used to modern day climates and Pokemon. After that, we send the first clone to you to use as your very own pokemon. Ahh, but I must be boring you with this explanation, I get very excited about these sorts of things,”  
He released his hand and rummaged in his pockets until he came up with what looked like some sort of visitor's pass. “Oh, I almost forgot again, We always offer a private tour of the facilities whenever a visitor comes with a viable fossil, publicity and all that. So how about a tour of the lab, with your very own scientist as a guide?”  
Of course I accepted and began a very informative backstage tour of the fossil lab. I got to get up close to some of the Genesis pods, which revealed that what I thought was an partially formed Omanyte before, was actually a pale Kabuto with a strange shell pattern. Louis then led me to a backdoor that I hadn’t seen before into an even larger cloning lab which held a single, massive Genesis Pod. He explained that the pod was for any Aerodactyl or Tyrantrum fossils, which were rare, but not as rare as one might think. Apparently, an Aerodactyl had just been cloned a few months ago, and a second clone is growing as we spoke. The doctor pointed out the tiny curled form of the embryo in the center of the pod before we left. Next, we visited a couple of the environments. First, the jungle environment with one very excited pair of Velozolt who played with Hugo as the doctor showed me their pregnant Dracosteg from afar. Then we bundled up to go to the snowy environment and play with an Amaura that had hatched last week while its majestic Aurorus parents watched over us. Next, I peered into the aquarium environment, which, upon further study, held Dunclovish and Relicanth as well as Lileep and Cradily. To top it all off, I was able to watch the little Tyrunt being born in a spray of dragonsfire with the crowd that had entered as Dr. Louis looked over my fossil. As I left the lab, Dr. Louis called after me.  
“Wait, Wait! Give me your Pokedex,” He jogged up to me as I left the reception area. I handed him my Pokedex, and he entered his contact, “I’m going to call you in about six months to send you the clone, make sure to study how to take care of a fossil pokemon until then.”  
“Thank you, for all of this, Your tour was awesome.”  
“It’s my job,” He smiled at me then began to walk back to the lab, “You know, I have a feeling you are gonna go far someday, remember me when you do,”  
With that in mind, I began my journey down the long dusty road to the Pokecenter, wondering about my future, and preparing for the ever closer reality of my next Gym Battle: Cyllage City.


	3. Beware the Tides

Chapter 3: Beware the Tides  
=====================================================================  
The sliding doors of the Ambrette Town Pokemart caught my eye as I made my way back from the lab, one Skull Fossil lighter, “Hm, I almost forgot, I have enough money for a couple of T.M.s,”  
I walked into the white-washed Pokemart, a contrast from the dusty street outside. A tiny bell sound announced my entrance and I was greeted by the cashier with a cheerful, “Hello!”  
Logos of mega-corporations like Silph-Devon International and Steele Co. jumped out at me from the shelves as I made my way through the aisles. Those two companies controlled nearly everything Pokemon all over the world, from Kanto to Galar. Everything I own, from my battle-proof trainer clothing, to my Pokedex and even my backpack was patented and manufactured by one of the two companies. It was slightly concerning that they had so much control, but the two companies were constantly trying to outdo each other with each new device or idea so at least neither company had a monopoly.  
I found myself in front of the blank screen of the cherry red T.M. Vendor next to the cashier.   
“Um,” I turned to the cashier, “Do you know how to turn this on? It's my first time,”  
“Oh, of course,” The young cashier came out from behind her counter and joined me in front of the vending-machine-like T.M Vendor, “Here, first, you tap the screen to wake up the little Porygon or Rotom inside,”  
She tapped the screen and two electric blue eyes peeled open on the screen as the Rotom possessing the T.M. Vendor woke up and made a digital persona for itself.   
“Now, just ask Rotom to look up the available moves for each of your Pokemon, when you make your choice, the T.M. should pop out here,” she pointed to a slot around the size and shape of a T.M. disc, “Also, if you have a reusable disc, you can pop it into this slot and Rotom will redownload the knowledge for you,”  
“And once you’re done, just bring them to me and I’ll check them out for you,” The cashier went back to the counter and pulled out a Rotom phone to text on as she waited for me.  
“Thanks, Hmm,” The Rotom on the screen beeped at me and typed a message.  
“Would you like to choose a new T.M. or revitalize a reusable one?”  
“Oh, I’m choosing a couple of new T.M.s,” The Rotom blinked and brought a menu to the screen.  
“What species of Pokemon would you like me to look up?”  
“One at a time or all at once, I have three Pokemon,”  
“Oh,” The Rotom did the digital equivalent of a giggle, “One at a time please,”  
“Well, first up is a Goomy,” I watched as the Rotom brought up a new screen showcasing the Goomy species’ moveset.  
“Here you go! Just tap the Move if you want more info on it and tap submit when you want me to add it to your order, then ask me if you want to change Pokemon species,”  
‘Easy enough,’ I scrolled down Nozomi’s possible moveset, ‘Hmm, mostly status moves, I think Nozomi needs a mid to long range finisher move so...”  
After a minute or so, I narrowed it down to two moves, Thunderbolt and Sludge Bomb, which were in the same price range and seemed to have the same power level.  
“Hm, well, Thunderbolt can cause paralysis and Sludge Bomb can poison, both of which are valuable in slowing opponents, which is what Nozomi needs as a stationary battler, but Sludge bomb seems more likely to poison an opponent than Thunderbolt is to paralyze,” I brushed my hair out of the way absentmindedly as calculations ran through my mind, “Thunderbolt would be useful against flying Pokemon though, what should I do?”  
“If you need any help with deciding, I can put the move averages side by side,” I startled at the sound of the Rotom beeping, to which it laughed again “Here, is this any help?”  
The Rotom pulled up a split screen with the extended menu for Sludge Bomb on one side and Thunderbolt on the other. Decades of data on the two techniques were spread before me, all condensed into a series of statistics.   
‘Hm, so Sludge Bomb is more likely to poison than Thunderbolt is to paralyze, about 20% more likely by the looks of it,’ I selected the Sludge Bomb move, ‘It’s poison type too, much more compatible with Nozomi’s biology,’ “Ok Rotom, I made my choice for my first pokemon, what do I do now?”  
“I’ll just add Sludge Bomb to your cart, and you can choose a new species,”  
“Next up is my Frogadier, do you have anything for her?”   
“Of course,” A similar screen came up for Frogadier instead of Goomy, “Take your pick!”  
‘Let’s see, now what was that move Shiro suggested...Hidden Power was it, huh,’ I selected the move to learn its stats, ‘Hm, this is... an interesting move, it varies in power and type depending on the pokemon’s genetics and with Edge’s Protean ability...if Shiro meant what I think he meant, this could be… a powerful asset,’ “I’ll take this one Rotom,”  
“Hidden Power is added to your cart, I believe you have one last Pokemon, correct?”  
“Yes, Litleo please,” I checked the total price for the two T.M.s so far, “Ooh, 13,500 poke, that’ll suck most of my funds, I only have about 4,000 left to spend if I want food for the next few weeks, hmm”  
Most of the T.Ms on Litleo ‘s available learnset were either too expensive or impractical, like Solar Beam or Toxic, others were interesting and options that I might get later, such as Bulldoze or Wild Charge. Ultimately, I had to decide between two moves, Rock Smash and Flame Charge.  
“Well, Rock smash will be particularly effective in the battle ahead, however, it might be harder for Litleo to learn as a move with a different Aura than his own...Flame Charge would fit seamlessly in the combo that we’re learning, and with repeated use, he’ll be faster than Edge, Hmmm,”  
“That is a tough choice,” The Rotom pouted and brought up the split screen again, “Each has their benefits and downsides... do you need more time?”  
“No,” I sighed in resignation and placed my Pokedex on the screen for the Rotom to scan, “I’ll pick Rock Smash, it’s the smartest move for the next Gym battle,”  
“Okay…” The Rotom processed my Trainer I.D., and began to spit out T.M.s from the slot.   
‘1,2,3,4, wait, four T.M.s, that isn’t right…’ I looked at Rotom in its tiny electric blue eyes, and it winked back.  
“It appears I have glitched…” It smirked, “Good luck on your Journey, We hope to see you again!”  
I stared in amazement at the mischievous little electric ghost as it closed its eyes and went back to the dormant screen it had before it was awakened. I silently placed all four discs in the special pouch of my trainer bag, then walked to the cashier, a small smile growing on my face from the rebellious act of kindness.  
“Hm?” The cashier looked up from her phone, “Do you need anything else?”  
I collected a couple of dehydrated meals for myself, a herbivore mix for Nozomi, an omnivore mix for Edge and a carnivore mix for Litleo, plus a special berry paste for little Felix and placed them on the counter.  
“Oh, a carnivore mix?” The cashier asked as she scanned the items, “Hm, we don’t get too many of those, most trainers prefer to hunt,”  
“Really?” I had read about the benefits of physically hunting with a predatory pokemon back when I first caught Litleo, but I had not realized it was that popular, ‘Litleo does need to gain more weight, I wonder…’“Do you recommend it?”  
“Well,” The cashier frowned slightly, “Corporate would probably want me to say no, but I get a lot a trainers through here that swear by it, so yes,”  
‘It can’t hurt to try it out… I have a bit more money to spare,’ “Do you have any weapons to spare…”  
“Honey, we’re a Pokemart, We have everything, ” The cashier grinned, “However, you need a hunting license before you go anywhere”  
“Oh, well…” I was late enough on my journey already, I didn’t have enough time for a hunting license exam.  
“Oh, it's not that hard, in fact, to get your training license, you already passed the test for a hunting license, you just need to be psych examed,”  
I remembered the test, it was mostly about how to hunt Pokemon humanely and safely, it was also why some form of martial arts and/or weapons training was required by the Kalos region. Pokemon were wondrous creatures, but they were also dangerous  
She threw a pokeball into the air, and released a Slowbro next to me, “It’ll only take a second,”  
“Wait, I…” I backed away from the dull-eyed Pokemon, but it was too late, the curled tendrils of psychic energy reaching into my mind and then fading away just as quickly, like the ebb and flow of the sea. ‘Hm, seems he didn’t touch anything important, thank Arceus I got my defenses up quickly enough,’  
The Slowbro yawned once he was finished and returned himself, most likely to sleep. At some hidden confirmation, the Pokemart cashier typed something into her register and looked up at me.  
“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? When you check out, I’ll add the hunting license to your Trainer I.D. so you won’t get in trouble with the Rangers, now, I believe you need a weapon of some kind to hunt yes?” She exited the desk area and grabbed some keys, “Follow me,”  
“Ah, yeah,” I followed her to a glass case full of different blades and bows, slightly off-put by the no-nonsense cashier, “What’s the best weapon to start with,”  
“Oh, most likely a fishing rod, it may be humble, but there is quite literally plenty of fish in the sea near Route 8, would you like to start with one?”  
“A fishing rod?” I had fished before with Nozomi in the swamps near Anistar in my childhood, it was a fun and rewarding pastime that got me away from the Pokecenter for a bit, “I, uh, didn’t know you needed a license to fish,”  
“Oh, don’t worry about it, the Hunting license is only for if you graduate to big game, such as Gyrados or Whailmer, or if you catch one by accident, there’s a list on your pokedex of restricted species and other regulations, just check the ranger website,”  
She opened the case and reached past the many sharp knives, elastic bows and deadly guns to grab a small, blue, collapsible fishing rod, a collection of hooks and fishing line, and a shiny, bright orange lure. She counted the hooks and then walked back to the register, “This should be enough, That’ll be 300 poke, and with the rest of the meals… 600 poke in all”   
I handed over my pokedex to pay for the items, collapsed the fishing rod and put the whole ensemble in my bag, “Thank you for your help, Have a nice day!”  
I left the pokemart and continued down the dusty road to the Pokecenter.  
After I entered the rusty orange and white building, I relaxed my sore muscles and stumbled up the stairs to my room, where I was greeted with a happy sight. Little Nozomi tumbled and swam in an aquarium that must have been brought in while I was gone, he gurgled happily at my entrance, which woke Edge who seemed to have been dozing while leaning against the wall. Litleo’s long warm feline body was currently curled around a fast asleep Felix, his fierce golden eyes peering at me from the bed. I smiled, and silently took out the Togepi’s ball, then returned him as quietly as I could. Litleo shook himself and stood up the moment the baby was gone, then jumped off the bed to greet me.  
“Hi guys,” Nozomi swam to a rock on the top of the tank to hear me better, “I’m really glad you guys get along with Felix, I probably should have told you this before he hatched, but, do you guys want to help me raise him?”  
Nozomi was the first to burble his appreciation, then Litleo affirmed with a growl, and finally Edge with a slight nod of her head.   
“Good, as you probably could tell, Felix can’t defend himself from other pokemon whatsoever when he’s this young, Can I count on all of you to protect him?”  
I looked each of my Pokemon in the eye, testing for their resolve and finding plenty. ‘Good, I won’t have any problems then,’ “Well, now that that’s settled, We need to start planning for the Cyllage City Gym battle, It’ll take us about a week to get there and about another week to get a battle with the leader,”  
I reached into the special pocket in my bag and grabbed the four T.M.s. “I got some moves for all of you, I’ll return you all for the night so you can process them,”   
Both Nozomi and Edge showed their appreciation with a nod, while Litleo looked curiously at the discs.   
“Litleo, these discs can help you get more powerful, they let you learn moves that you usually can’t use naturally, instantly,” I got down to his level and let him sniff the discs, so that he can make his own opinions about them. “Here, it’ll be better to go through it rather than explain it, return!”  
Litleo returned to his ball, I inserted the first disc, Flame Charge, into his Pokeball, which immediately heated up and flashed with orange light, enough that I had to drop it onto the floor of the room. Once the ball cooled to a more comfortable temperature, I picked it up and inserted Litleo’s second new move, Rock Smash. The ball rocked once and shined with a golden light, indicative of its fighting type nature. ‘Okay, I’ll leave him in his ball overnight to process both moves, then we can start working on it tomorrow,”  
“Alright, Nozomi, you’re next,” I returned him and inserted the T.M. Sludge Bomb. The ball leaked a poisonous royal purple miasma into the air that I made sure not to breathe in, then glowed slightly before the process finished. I put Nozomi’s ball next to Litleo on my belt, the small magnetic strip immediately adhering to the ball. He would most likely need time to process the move as well, seeing as Sludge Bomb was relatively powerful in comparison to his other moves.  
“Edge, you’re up, return!” I placed Hidden Power into her Pokeball. ‘Well, Hidden Power is a Normal type move so this shouldn’t be too dramatic…’ Just as the thought cleared my mind, Edge’s ball exploded with intense rainbow light, far more than even Litleo’s Flame Charge. As the light faded, spots swarming behind my vision, I sat onto the bed in shock of the strange reaction. ‘How… Normal type Aura isn’t that strong…It must have something to do with Edge’s Protean,”   
Though I was planning to keep Edge out for the night since Hidden Power was technically no more powerful than her Water Pulse; I decided to play it safe and keep her in.   
“Well, I guess I won’t have anyone to sleep with tonight, too bad,” The waning light of the sun filtered into the room as I undressed and took a shower, washing away the accumulated dirt and dust of a month’s travel through Rock-type Pokemon territory. The warm shower water stung slightly as it flowed through the couple of cuts and bruises I got while traveling or training with my Pokemon but other than that, the hot water was an immense relief after a month of washing in cold rivers. It felt great and served to relax my body before I went out to my bed, only to find a certain ovoid Pokemon watching me with his button sized brown eyes.  
“Oh, Felix, How did you…” I knew that Pokemon could release themselves with enough will power and experience in a Pokeball, I definitely didn’t expect little Felix to learn it so early. I got dressed in a pair of silken pajamas provided by the Pokecenter, made sure my bag was packed with all the necessities including the brand new fishing rod from the Pokemart, and got into bed. “Well, I guess you’ll be my bedmate for the night, Good Night, Felix,”  
“Toge-pii,” The baby bird curled his crown of spikes inward, until he looked like the egg he came from. Then, he rolled himself into the crook of my coiled form and closed his eyes, almost instantly asleep.   
My own eyes stayed open for a while longer, reflecting on the busy day and what is to come. ‘ Well, after this gym, I’ll be more in the middle of the pack than at the end. The trainers who got to Santalune a few months earlier than me usually get stuck at the Battle Chateau. They train their teams there instead of taking a slower route like I did. I had taken a different route for two main reasons. One, I wanted to start out my journey with as few distractions as possible, and that includes other rookie trainers. I had spent my five and a half months training as hard as I could with Nozomi and Edge in Kiloude City, specifically, the Safari Zone, Kalos’s most famous national park. With its multitude of Pokemon types, the Safari Zone was the perfect place to observe the balance of different Pokemon types in battle, a useful skill in most gym battles. Second, My sponsor wanted me to wait out the main rush of rookie trainers for his own reasons, mainly so I could battle only against trainers that were at my level instead of washouts who only wanted to reap the benefits or get a breeding license, but also for...things I didn’t want to think about,”  
My eyes began to droop, as I began to lose my fight to the cozy bed and the egg-shaped heating pad next to me, ‘Tomorrow is when I start strategizing for Cyllage. Let’s see here, it’s a rock type gym so Edge will be invaluable, same with Litleo’s new Rock Smash, depending on how he takes it. Lanelle’s the gym leader, from what I saw of her matches, the challenger has to complete some form of physical obstacle before they battle, like a free climb up a rock wall or lifting some of the rock types to the battlefield- That shouldn’t be a problem for me. She usually uses two or three Pokemon in her matches, with at least one of them at the same level as the challenger, so I better bring all three just in case. The rock types I observed so far like to make it a battle of attrition, which might be a problem for Edge...I can probably think of a few ways she can turn that on its head...I’ll sleep on it...for now,”   
My eyes closed completely and I fell asleep.   
“Pii...Pii...PII,” I was awoken by the rather insistent chirping of Felix.  
“Oh, Felix, what time is it?” I got up to look at the time on my Pokedex, “7 AM already? Guess it’s time to get up,”   
I got out of bed and got dressed into my usual League-issued trainer clothing and . I put my backpack onto the bed, “Felix, you ready to go?”  
The day-old Togepi bounced with excitement at my tone, “Toge, Togepi!”  
“Okay then, come with me,” I picked the baby pokemon up from the bed and placed him in my backpack, then slung it over my shoulder, “Now, this is where you stay til you are big enough to walk on your own, alright?”  
“Togepi!” The Spike-Ball pokemon chirped happily.  
I sighed, all I could do was hope he actually understood what I was saying.  
I brought my key to the front desk of the Pokecenter.  
“Did your Togepi settle in okay?” The young nurse took my key and hung it onto a hook with many other identical keycards.  
“Oh, he did great,” I jabbed my thumb at the pair of brown button eyes peeking from my pack.  
“Togepiii,” The baby bird ducked into my backpack once the Nurse joy met his eyes, shy from his previous encounter.  
The nurse laughed and waved me out, “We hope to see you again!”  
I left the Pokecenter behind, traveling along Ambrette’s dusty main road before I came to the beginning of the Muraille Coast. I opened my Pokedex, “Let’s see what type of Pokemon are common around here,”  
Route 8, also known as the Muraille Coast, is known for its towering cliffs, rushing water, and sandy beaches. Here on Route eight, many bird Pokemon such as Wingull and Taillow roost along the cliffs, alongside mountain pokemon like Mianfoo and their evolution Mianshao. The beaches are dotted with small rock type Pokemon such as Dwebble and the occasional Bianacle, they are most commonly found beneath the rock formations in both the sand and the water. Driftloom and Driftblum can be found at night along the cliff drifting on the cool sea breezes and a multitude of sea pokemon fill the waters of the Galarian Channel. You may catch sight of the rare Bagon or an Absol, however, they are endangered species here and require at least a 4 badge trainer’s license to catch. Pokemon to watch out for here on Route 8 are the Malamar lairs that dot the route, each lair is marked on your Pokedex and a warning will appear if you come within their territory. Tribes of Seviper and Zangoose populate the upper cliffs, all trainers are advised to avoid the borderlines of their respective territories. Finally, as it is Dragalge mating season, swimming is discouraged for any trainer below 6 badge level. You will be notified of any local hazards when you come within one hundred meters.  
“Hm, pretty standard stuff, I have heard of the Dragalge near here, I don’t want to catch most of these Pokemon, most of the interesting ones like Driftblum and Malamar are above my badge level...This will be a nice route to train,”  
After traveling along the cliff part of Route 8 for a good five hours without incident, little Felix’s eyes always peeking from my backpack, I was forced to hike down from the upper cliffs to avoid a Malamar lair and found a nice stretch of uninterrupted beach, perfect for training.  
“All of you, come out!” I threw my Pokeballs into the air, releasing my other Pokemon onto the sand. Nozomi burbled at the sight of me, happy as always, while Litleo greeted me with an excited growl. Edge was reserved as always, but had a new look of fierce determination when she met my gaze, she was ready to go as well.  
“Okay, let’s try out your new moves, Litleo, you’re up first,” Litleo bounded to my side, then coiled his muscles, raring to go, “Use Flame Charge!”  
Litleo bared his teeth in a grin as flames immediately covered him from head to toe, then he leaped into a blazing hot sprint up the beach, white hot tongues of fire licking up the sand behind his paws. It was a move ready-made for the little fire cub, almost as natural as breathing for him. I could see him grow faster with each loop around the beach, a side effect of the move which is why it was so popular with many trainers.  
“Okay, Litleo, now try Fang Blitz on that rock with Flame Charge added on!”   
I pointed at a rock formation about as tall as a man, right before a ball of fire and light cleaved the top three feet clean off. Litleo slid to a stop in front of me a few seconds later, chunks of red-hot rock cooling on the sand behind him. He spat out a couple more pieces of rock onto the ground then roared, a sound infused with pleasure and thrill at his newfound power. The combo was incredibly powerful, however, I could tell that it was draining on Litleo’s stamina, he could probably only use it two to three times before it would exhaust him  
“That was awesome Litleo, now, to finish it off, use Rock Smash on the remains of the rock,” Litleo had to focus for a second before the golden energy of the fighting type came to him and gathered in his paw. Three swipes of the move was all it took to turn the rest of the rock to dust, sending a couple of Dwebble scurrying for cover. Litleo began to chase after the speedy hermit crabs, and I decided to let him do it, seeing as he had demonstrated both moves.  
“Okay, Nozomi, you’re up,” I walked about 20 feet from Nozomi and drew a circle about two feet in diameter in the sand, “Use Sludge Bomb on the sand circle, I want to measure its power and accuracy,”  
I backed away from the circle as the little slug dragon seemed to gather a wad of spit and slime in his mouth, while at the same time adding a liberal amount of purple Poison Aura. The whole process took about six seconds, before he spat a softball sized globule of sludge that reached the inside of the circle, but not the exact center. A wave of sand and miasma rose from the impact, it seemed like the ball went at least two feet into the ground. I waited a minute for the fumes to be dispersed by the sea breeze then slowly walked over with Nozomi to examine the crater.  
I took a picture of the four foot crater for future reference, then covered my mouth with my shirt and analyzed the Sludge bomb as it dissolved into the sand.  
“Good Job Nozomi, It needs improvement, but this move will be very powerful in the future,” Again, I could tell that this move was exhausting to perform and the long windup and slightly low accuracy was also a problem, however, this would be an awesome finisher move for now and a great asset for later, “Okay, I can return you now if you would like,”  
Nozomi was not suited for the sandy beach, the sand made his slime clump up and the salt from the water irritated his skin. I knew he would want to stay out to be with me, but I wanted him to be comfortable. He nodded and I returned him to his Pokeball.   
Out of the blue, I felt a small tug on my backpack’s straps.   
“What’s up Felix?” I turned to see the spiky egg’s adorable puppy eyes, with his little arms raised up to reach me, “Do you want to play on the beach while we train?”  
The Togepi chirped, “Pii, Piii!”  
“Litleo!” I called for the lion cub, who lifted his head from a now empty Dwebble shell, a single orange claw poking from his mouth, “Come here, Felix wants to play with you,”  
I picked the egg-shaped pokemon and placed him on the ground as Litleo swallowed the rest of his prey and bounded over. He herded the stumbling baby to a clear area away from myself and Edge.  
I got down to the frog Pokemon’s level, “Hidden Power should be similar to Water Pulse, except it will be a different Aura type than your own. However, I have my doubts that’ll just work that way with you. This move was recommended by a ranger, one with a Greninja himself, and there was quite the interesting reaction when I inserted it into your Pokeball...You ready for this?”  
Edge nodded, there was a fire in her coal-black eyes that I hadn’t noticed until now. “Edge, use your Hidden Power!”  
Edge focused intensely, with her webbed hands stretched in front of her chest as if to catch a ball. Nothing seemed to happen for a couple of seconds, then the Frogadier’s brow tightened with effort and she began to move her hands in a circular motion. Sparks of golden fighting type energy formed in the space between her palms, then collected into the form of a softball sized sphere of tumultuous energy. I stepped forward to give her more instructions, but Edge was not finished. The ball of Fighting type left the space where it originated to make room for a new storm of Aura sparks, this time the lavender color of Ghost type energy. The deathly energy converged into a sphere as well, then joined the Fighting type Aura in orbiting their creator’s head. Edge was visibly sweating with the stamina it took to create the two Hidden Powers, and she still was not done. Edge formed a final ball of harsh white Normal energy, which joined its brethren in orbit. Edge opened her eyes and focused on the sheer cliff in front of her, then sent the three Aura balls flying into targets only she could see.  
In an instant, the Hidden Powers hit the cliff wall and exploded with the force of grenades, which scared a flock of nesting Wingull into flight. ‘I see what you meant, Shiro,’   
Each sphere seemed to have a different effect. The Normal type Power scorched the cliff and created a large crater, while the Ghost Hidden Power created a vertical shockwave that withered what little plant life still clung to the cliff wall. The Fighting type energy seemed to have a similar effect to the Normal Hidden Power, however, on closer inspection, the Fighting-type Hidden Power penetrated far deeper than the Normal Hidden Power, as if it had homed in on a fault in the cliff and hit it. ‘So they each have the properties of the Aura Edge collected,”  
This epic new power was not without price, Edge had fallen to one knee, her body straining with the simple effort of keeping her head up. Edge’s eyes, however, were alight with vicious joy at the destruction she caused, she had grown stronger. ‘I wonder what caused the greatest loss of her stamina, was it the ability in and of itself or the changing of Aura types, We’ll have to see once I let her rest for a little, still, I guess I’m doing stamina training for the lot of them, I’ll have to tweak my plan…’  
“Edge, That was awesome!” I rushed to her side before she could fall, and got there in the nick of time. I propped her up on my knee and returned her to her Netball, “Rest up for now, we’ll be training tonight,”  
Edge’s eyes glinted in the sunlight as she faded into the scarlet red light and returned to her Pokeball. I turned to the general direction of my other two Pokemon and called, “Litleo, bring Felix back, We’re hunting for lunch!”  
At this, the lion cub’s ears perked up, he was already hooked on the idea of hunting for real. Litleo scooped Felix onto his back and galloped to my side, making sure Felix did not fall and hurt himself the whole way.   
I picked up Felix and returned him, then reached to grab the fishing gear out of the digital inventory of the pack. Fishing rod in hand, I looked up and down the beach for one of the rock structures that jut out into the water, like natural piers. I found one a couple hundred feet from me, jogged over to it with Litleo, then climbed to the end of it with him at my side.  
Litleo growled at the waves crashing at the sides of the rocky jetty, both his feline side and his fiery nature opposed to the water.  
“It’s alright Litleo, you won’t be going in the water,” I tied a hook and lure to the end of the Fishing Rod’s line, and held up the combination to Litleo,”This is,”  
I flicked my wrist with the practiced skill I had honed for hours in the swamps of Anistar, and the shiny lure dropped into the sea about 20 feet out.   
“This is a slightly different kind of hunting than what you’re used to, It’s called fishing,” I reeled the line in and sent it back out, “I’ll keep doing this action until I get a bite, If I bring up a fish, it’ll be your job to take it out and make sure it doesn’t go back into the water, Once we get a couple fish, I can cook lunch, or dinner depending on how long this takes,”  
Twenty minutes of flicking and reeling went by, before I finally got a bite. I jerked slightly, and began to fight with the fish, a game of give and take that lasted for a minute or so until, “Litleo, you’re up!”  
Litleo’s furry, dark body collided with the red scaled blur that I had lifted from the sea. The battle was short lived, and it wasn’t long before we had caught our first fish, a two foot Magikarp.  
“Nice job Litleo!” I unhooked the Magikarp and flicked the lure back out to the sea, “Now, make sure to guard the fish from any birds that come our way, we don’t want it to be snagged by a Wingull,”  
Litleo nodded and took a stance over the fish, who was technically as long as he was tall. A couple of tries later, I got another bite, and brought up a Feebas to join our slowly growing pile of fish. It took another twenty minutes of tries and two or three bites that got away or broke the line, before I felt a massive jerk run through the line, a tell-tale sign of a big fish.  
“Get ready, Litleo, this one’s big,” I fought with the fish for a good 7 minutes, before, with one last heave, a 3 foot Arrokuda leaped onto the pier, ‘This one’s definitely larger than normal, it’s probably very close to evolving,’ “Litleo, this one won’t be a pushover like the others, use Rock Smash!”  
Litleo roared and pounced on the slightly stunned fish with two glowing paws, smashing it into the salty rock. The Arrokuda was snapped out of it’s daze and retaliated with a Peck that nearly knocked Litleo off the rock.   
“Litleo, use Noble Roar then Takedown,” Litleo roared again, this time it was with a voice that was not his own, a deep voice of terrible power that echoed the future form of Litleo, Pyroar. Then, Litleo recklessly charged the Arrokuda, who used an Aqua jet as a shield a few seconds before impact. The fish and Litleo both took damage from the impact, and Arrokuda used Aqua jet again before Litleo could recover.  
“Litleo, use Flame Charge and run circles around Arrokuda,” A plan formed in my mind, ‘If Litleo can dry out the air around Arrokuda, It’ll be forced to use its own water reserves to use Aqua jet, which will probably dry him out with two or three moves, then we’ll strike,”  
A circle of rushing fire burned in a four foot radius around the fish, there was barely any room for it to move, let alone run. ‘Perfect,’  
The Arrokuda was trapped and it knew it, it tried to break Litleo’s Flame Charge with it’s Aqua Jet five times over, which only served to drain its water reserves. “Litleo, attack now, use Fang Blitz!”  
The circle of fire blazed higher before breaking when Litleo backed up to perform the combo. It’s eye’s widened, the Arrokuda watched it’s oncoming death with abject terror, until a familiar light obscured its body.  
“Litleo, No!” Impact. An explosion of fire and white light knocked me off the rock, and almost into the water before I caught a handhold and flipped back upward. What greeted my eyes was a little fire lion standing over a fried Barraskewda, Litleo’s eyes now glowing with pride, “Ha, well, I guess you earned your lunch Litleo, you can dig in if you like,”  
I made sure Litleo roasted my two fish, then fileted the fish before stuffing myself with the hard earned meat and setting some aside for Edge’s dinner if she felt like it. I released both Nozomi and the rested Edge to continue training. First, I took Nozomi to the side while Litleo rested and Edge began a physical workout I had made for her- one with plenty of suicide sprints for stamina, leaping for dodging ability, and Pounding the plentiful boulders for strength.  
“Now Nozomi, I’m going to perform a test on the viscosity of your Sludge Bomb,” I let him up on my shoulder, then walked to a rock formation with a flatter top to serve as his platform, “I’m going to draw a circle in the sand about twenty feet from this rock, try to aim for it when you use the move. However, instead of using the same amount of your slime and Poison Aura, I want you to change it up, I’ll yell out how much you should use each and we’ll do it five times over, do you think you can do that buddy?”  
He gurgled in affirmation as I cleared the rock’s top of sand, then let the Goomy slide off onto the boulder. “Alright, try to be as accurate as possible,”  
I walked about 8 steps away from the rock and drew a 4 foot circle in the sand.  
I opened my Pokedex to the same app I used to test Edge’s evolved prowess, opened a new file and labeled it “Sludge Bomb Variations”. Once I was ready, I called to Nozomi, “First, do a regular Sludge Bomb with equal parts slime and Poison energy at the circle. The little snail complied, garnering a similar result to the first time he tried Sludge Bomb; however, he was slightly faster whether through getting more used to the move, or some other reason. I added it to the file, under the title Base, “Now, try using pure slime, don’t add the Poison Aura,”  
This time, instead of a gob of slime and poisonous miasma, a stream of green slime came from his reserves, coating the sand in a ten foot cone in front of Nozomi’s rock, getting nowhere near the circle. ‘It makes for an interesting idea, I know from experience how slippery and sticky Nozomi’s slime was…”  
I labeled the test Flytrap and added it to the file, “Now, add some poison energy to it, but not enough to make a proper Bomb,”  
This time, the Sludge Bomb was more of a spray, it had less width than the previous test but went about five or six feet farther. The spray seemed to be slightly acidic as well, it would probably evolve to become Acid Spray once Nozomi got stronger, or evolved to Sliggoo, which were infamous for their acid. I placed it under Proto-Spray and continued to the next test, “Now, add more Poison energy than slime!”  
This Sludge Bomb lived up to its name, the volatile ball of energy looked almost like a flying cell with Nozomi’s green slime as the nucleus and the deep purple Poison energy as the surrounding cytoplasm, before it hit the ground about six to eight feet beyond the target and exploded. ‘It's like a sort of Poison Pulse,but not accurate at all…”  
I titled it Impractical Poison Pulse and moved on, “Okay, last one is all poison aura, then I’ll let you rest for a bit,”  
Nozomi was quite drained from the added energy of changing the composition of the Bombs, but he had enough to form one last ball of swirling poison. The Poison Aura formed into a disc instead of a ball and began to shift with barely contained power. Nozomi released it before it grew too big for him to contain and it exploded before going ten feet, and nearly knocked Nozomi off his rock.  
‘Hm, so Nozomi’s sludge holds it together’ I titled the disc bomb Pure Poison- Unstable and walked back up to my Goomy, “Alright little guy, for now, regain your slime reserves with Absorb, I can bring you over to the shade if you like,”  
The slimy dragon type burbled his appreciation as I brought him to an overhang near the cliff and set him down, “Once you rest up, practice your Water Pulse and Rain Dance on some of the rocks here, it’s going to be your best bet for the gym battle,”  
I let the little Goomy begin his healing ritual, and jogged over to Edge, who was currently in the middle of a suicide sprint.   
“Edge, I’m going on a walk with Litleo for a bit, Once you have physically exhausted yourself, I want you to work on your water type moves, like Water Pulse and Bubble, then on Quick Attack to up your speed,” She nodded in affirmation, “Oh, and make sure to check on Nozomi every so often, I don’t want any of the native pokemon to get any ideas while he regenerates his slime,”  
The serious Frogadier nodded again before returning to her exercise.  
“Litleo!” I called the lion cub from his food induced nap in the sand, in an instant Litleo jumped to his feet and Charged over to me, “We’re going to go for a walk along the cliffs, there’s plenty of trainers and pokemon to battle, but for this time, we’re going to focus on rock types. I’m going to use you for the first part of the gym battle, so I want you to find out how rock types battle, Okay?”  
He growled with determination, ready for the trials ahead, even though fire-type attacks have little effect on the hard rock types. We walked up and down the beach for a long time, never straying farther than an hour or two away from camp, before coming back and bedding down for the night. My pokemon and I spent the next couple of days in a similar manner: waking up and traveling in the morning; fishing with either Edge or Litleo for lunch while the others trained; then walking until sunset with one of my pokemon, combing for trainers to defeat, before settling down for the night. Over these few days, all of my pokemon’s stamina improved marginally and they mastered the moves they were given, though Edge mostly learned to focus on one type of Hidden Power at a time so as to not drain her stamina. At the end of the week, only a day’s travel from Cyllage, I was about to leave on a walk with Litleo while the others worked on move stamina through constant repetition.  
I released Felex into my backpack, seeing the battles with more experienced Pokemon was good for him. The newborn egg pokemon chirped on being released, then snuggled into the confines of the backpack. I smiled at his antics, then started northward on the beach, with Litleo bounding at my side.  
The hike was uneventful at first, with Litleo defeating the native Dwebble and Binacle with ease. We ran into the occasional trainer for a one on one battle, which did give a bit more of a challenge for Litleo, but he was defeated by a trainer that overwhelmed the fire cub with an unusually strong Clauncher.  
It was around an hour before sunset when I decided to turn around and go back to camp.  
“Litleo, time to go back, come on,” Litleo was currently sniffing a clump of light-colored seaweed, but when I called him, his ears perked and he began to come back. Just as Litleo began to run, the clump of seaweed moved with astounding speed and grasped his ankle.  
“Litleo, get away from it!” As an automatic reaction, Litleo set himself aflame and burned away the seaweed before rushing over to me. The burnt tentacle retracted into the ocean as a massive patchwork monstrosity of rusted metal and sopping seaweed, previously unnoticed by either me or Litleo rose on spectral winds from the shallows, howling with anger and pain.  
‘Dhelmise...This is bad…’ Dhelmise were a ghost/grass type native to Alola. Their natural prey is the massive behemoths of the sea such as Wailord and Gyrados, which is why they disguise themselves as the seaweed on the anchors of large ships. They were such powerful sea spirits that even the most experienced trainers try to avoid catching their ire. It was rare for one to wash up on the shore, but it could happen to a Dhemise that is young or needs more ghostly energy to attack its prey. Even with a type advantage, I doubt Litleo could win against such a creature. I pressed the return button on Felix’s luxury ball without moving my eyes from the sea spirit’s metal body. ‘At least he will be protected if we can’t get out of this,’   
“Litleo, we have to go, you can’t win this one,” Litleo growled and stood his ground refusing to leave, “Litleo! This is not the time to be stubborn, we have to let this one go, come on,”  
Litleo yowled and nodded to the seaweed tentacles of the twelve-foot tall Pokemon, I walked up to him as slow as possible, making sure to keep my eyes lowered from the broken compass that served as it’s eye so as to not get hypnotized, “I know its a grass type but that’s not going to help you when it’s natural habitat is the sea…”  
Litleo was not pointing towards the tentacles themselves, but at two large, squirming bundles already knotted into the Dhelmise’ grasp. One was about the same size as me, while the other was closer to Litleo’s height, a person and their pokemon. ‘They’re still alive…This changes things’ “Litleo, this is going to be really hard, I think we can save them with your flames but you need to avoid confronting the main body directly like in a real battle, Dhelmise can hit very hard and if you get tangled in its seaweed, it's all over”  
“Work Up and Flame Charge over and over, Dodge through its tentacles,” I tried to press the panic button on my Pokedex, but I had to leap back from a swing of Dhelmise’s tentacles. Litleo’s mohawk mane flared with power as Litleo worked himself up and began to dodge the multitude of seaweed tentacles flailing in all directions. Litleo leaped and weaved in the forest of deadly kelp, a flaming torch in the slowly fading light of the sunset. I could see his heroic determination harden as he got closer and closer to his goal. As he ran, Litleo grew faster and faster and his flames reached higher and higher. Where the fire cub’s paws touched the shallow water, boiling steam rose on the wavering air. “Litleo, get the smaller bundle first,”  
By now, the Dhelmise was definitely angered. One of its tentacles had been burnt right in the middle of its meal and now a tiny ball of fangs and flame is bouncing between its limbs, yet it is unable to catch it. Its one spectral eye narrowed as the sea spirit formed a ball of shadowy energy and sent it toward Litleo, who quickly ducked out of the way and continued to the small bundle.  
“Litleo, Fire Fang, rip the bundle out and bring it to me,” I had jumped onto a small rock structure farther up the beach, and out of the immediate reach of the Dhelmise, now I pressed the panic button on my pokedex, ‘But the Rangers might not get here for a while, there are a lot of pokemon and trainers here that need monitoring...Shoot,’  
Litleo had now ripped out the bundle and was in the process of bringing it to me. He had focused the flames away from his head so as to not burn the bundle between his fangs. Though his progress was slightly hindered by the size of the bundle, it was not too hard to bring the bundle back to me with Litleo’s strength. He dropped it as my feet and I began to carefully unwrap the seaweed from the Pokemon victim inside. The Dhelmise roared with intense anger, a sound like the crash of waves against a cliff mixed with the garbled screams of a thousand drowned sailors. It was extremely unsettling, yet Litleo was unbothered by it, if anything, I could see his fiery mane flare higher at the roar as he dove back into the fray to get the last bundle.  
‘This’ll be difficult to pull off, It will be much harder to drag the larger bundle through Dhelmise’s reaching tentacles and Litleo is already tired from today’s walk,’ “Litleo, instead of going straight, zig-zag through the seaweed, tie it up!”  
Litleo followed through and began to lead Dhelmise in a chase of cat and mouse, or rather, massive, angry sea spirit and tiny fire cat. The fire of Litleo’s Flame charge made sure that the tentacles didn’t come too close while his speed made sure that the anchor spirit did not realize how tied up its tentacles had become before it was too late.   
As Litleo rushed towards the second bundle in the opening he created, I felt a small buzz from my Pokedex. The screen now read:  
“Warning! You are now within 100 meters of a Malamar lair, It is recommended to leave the area immediately,”  
‘A Malamar? This might be useful…” I had the beginnings of a risky plan that depended on what Malamar will see as a threat, “Litleo, get to me as fast as you can!”  
Litleo finished taking out the second bundle and started to run to me, just as Dhelmise finished untying its tentacles.  
This time around, Litleo was much slower, and there were several close calls before he got to me and dropped the larger bundle at my feet. The Dhelmise began to pull itself out of the water and onto the sand, now determined to kill the little fireball that had stolen its dinner.   
“Litleo, this is going to be extremely dangerous but I want you to lead the Dhelmise towards that cliff wall, I’ll return you if things get really bad. If this works, we’ll be able to run from here without that anchor on our tail. Are you ready?”  
Litleo nodded. The Dhelmise was now close enough that I could smell the sea salt and rust off its body. I began to drag the two bundles away, “Go Litleo!”  
Litleo roared with the voice that was not yet his, the rumble of far-off thunder to combat the crash of the waves, and caught the sea spirit’s attention. The fire lion waited until most of the seaweed tentacles were coming after him before dashing for the cliff wall.  
The Dhelmise followed suit, using its life-sucking tentacles to “herd” Litleo towards the wall. Litleo ran straight at the wall, almost rushing headlong into it, only to turn and find that all exits were blocked by the oncoming Dhelmise. The Dhelmise’s great metal top slammed into the cliff with such force that a shower of gravel and dust rained on to its body from above. Litleo was totally trapped, the sea spirit’s seaweed now a net circling closer and closer.  
I fingered the return button on Litleo’s pokeball, but I was too far away for it to do any good, ‘A little longer…’  
Just as all seemed lost for my little lion cub, an impossibly loud psychic shriek echoed from the cave mouth directly above the Dhelmise and the dark, witch-like silhouette of a wrathful Malamar poked its tentacled head from its lair. I started to run toward Litleo, the two, half-unwrapped seaweed bundles left behind in my wake.  
An immense psychic force wrenched the anchor from atop Litleo and threw the car-sized sea spirit a good sixty feet. The Malamar rushed into combat with the largest being that dared to intrude on its territory, and the Dhelmise returned the favor with a couple of Shadow Balls. The two powerful pokemon began to move out to sea, locked in combat, as I skirted past their battle and returned Litleo as soon as I got close enough, “You deserve a rest, Litleo,”  
I jogged back to the two bundles, placed the smaller one in my backpack and began to drag the larger one as far as possible from Malamar's territory. It took about twenty minutes before I felt I was far enough to be safe. I began unwrapping the smaller bundle first, since it was the one I had done the most work on. I ripped away the final layer of knotted seaweed to reveal the black feathers of a Corvisquire, one that seemed to be melanistic or darker than normal. It had lesions all over its body from which the Dhelmise was sucking its blood and life-force. I took out two potions and sprayed them on the worst injuries to keep the Corvisquire stable while I worked on the second bundle. Potions were wonders of medical technology that could heal injuries in seconds with a cellular regenerant patented by Silph-Devon. They worked especially well on Pokemon for an unknown reason, I knew that the Corvisquire would most likely be fine.  
‘It’s trainer however…’ I pulled off the seaweed from the larger bundle to reveal a boy about my age now covered from head to toe in bloodied wounds. I sprayed the rest of my stock of potions all over the guy, focusing on areas with major blood vessels such as the neck and chest. I bandage the wounds that had begun to heal and put pressure on the wounds to his arms and legs. His rich brown skin was far paler than it should be, a bad sign for massive blood loss. I kept my fingers on his wrist for his pulse and looked over him for any signs of ID or other pokeballs, eventually finding the Corviknight’s Pokeball and returning it. He appeared to be in a light blue Sky-Trainer suit, one now ripped and torn by the rough seaweed. ‘He must be one of the flying type specialists that train on the cliffs here, I wonder what his other pokemon are…’  
Suddenly, the trainer’s eyes snapped open, revealing two sharp golden irises, almost like those a Talonflame. He began to cough vigorously and tried to move, only to be pushed down by me.  
“You shouldn’t move, save your energy for something else,”  
His voice was weak and raspy, I could barely hear him say “Lance...Where’s Lance?”  
“If you’re talking about your Corvisquire, they’re fine, I returned him, you both are going to be fine,” I noticed a slight tremor in my hands and forced myself to stop, the adrenaline was getting to me, “The Rangers are coming and they’ll bring you to the hospital,”  
“So...weak…” The trainer murmured before falling back into unconsciousness.  
I took deep rattling breaths while keeping pressure on some of the worst wounds, I was never good at this sort of thing, it was hard for me to keep my cool in situations for long, especially near others. ‘That’s why the Joys aren’t coming after me, not yet, I’m not worth it,’  
Just as I was about to break down completely, a Beeheeum and two Rangers with a stretcher and trauma gear appeared about twenty feet away. They ran over to the injured trainer and I the moment they could view the situation. As one of the Rangers and the Beeheeum loaded up the trainer, the other came to where I lay kneeled on the sand.  
“Are you the trainer who sent out the panic alert?”  
“Yeah,” I stood up slowly with the stretcher and released my hands once I felt Beeheeum’s psychic pressure replace it.  
“What happened to them?” I must have looked pale to the ranger, because she now spoke in a gentle tone more appropriate for calming a young toddler, “It’s alright if you don’t want to share, but it will help the Ranger Corps with cataloging each hazard along this trail,”  
I told her the clip notes version of me and Litleo’s encounter with the Dhelmise as I watched the other Ranger assess the Sky Trainer’s injuries. She nodded,  
“You did good with what you had, that’s what Beeheeum saw as well,” The psychic pokemon at Ranger Corps headquarters are often used to divine images of what is happening when a panic alert is sounded; that way the Ranger’s would have some idea of what is happening before they get there. Psychic clairvoyance is not always accurate and has a limited range so the use of clairvoyance is rare in most other professions. I was always interested in the abilities of pokemon, but at that moment all I wanted to do is get back to my camp and process what had happened.  
“ I, uhh, don’t need to come with you guys right?” I could feel the adrenaline surge beginning to wear off and it was getting harder to keep myself from trembling, “I’m not hurt and I sorta need to check up on my other pokemon…”  
“Well, we have to bring this trainer to Cyllage Hospital ASAP, so you are off the hook for now, but let a certified Nurse Joy check you out once you get to Cyllage, You have quite the first aid skills, but even the best of us misses some things…” She said more, but at that point I was focusing on not breaking down and submitting generic answers until both Rangers left with the Beeheeum.   
I stumbled in the dark until I was greeted by one worried slimeball and a slightly annoyed frog. Both Edge and Nozomi reacted to my exhausted state, with Edge leading me to the tent and Nozomi immediately climbing up my leg and covering me with his slimy tongue. I released both Felix and the battered Litleo. The former of which chirped sadly and the latter simply flopped at my feet, too exhausted to growl. I broke down in front of them, curling into a ball and bawling my eyes out until sleep wrapped me like a soft blanket.   
The next day I slept through my alarm three times before I came to the waking world, rubbing my goo encrusted eyes and scratching off bits of dried Nozomi slime. I had returned Nozomi, Edge and Litleo so that they could rest before we got to a Pokecenter, with both Nozomi and Edge in need of a soak. Little Felix had tucked himself into the crook of my arm at some point during the night and cheeped with joy once he saw me awake.  
“Hi little one, I’m sorry I couldn’t feed you well last night,” Togepi feed on happy feelings, like joy or excitement or connection and excreted a golden dust that is good for adding a natural buzz into any drink. It did mean that I had to dust him off several times a day when I’m at my most content or when I had played with him for a while, or not at all when I’m sad or afraid. The dust has a slightly corrosive effect on Togepi’s eggshell, which is otherwise practically unbreakable. This means that once Togepi have dusted a certain amount of times, they can break out of their shells and evolve. It also means that the closer the Togepi is to evolution, the more fragile their shell is and the more care needs to be given by the trainer.  
I packed up my camp into my bag’s dimensional space, then put little Togepi into the physical pocket. Next, I cleaned up my campfire and did a final check for anything I missed. I checked my Pokedex for any updates on Pokemon in my area then, I set off on the last leg of my journey to Cyllage, the City of Foundations.


End file.
